Films and series that were discarded by Disney Channel

Since its creation in the 1980s, Disney Channel has been responsible for launching films, series and animations that have impacted the lives of thousands of young people and children around the world. Unfortunately, at the beginning of this month, Brazilian fans were surprised by the announcement that the channel will go off the air in Brazil from February 2025.

In a statement, the broadcaster announced that the decision is a “response to the transformations in the local media and entertainment landscape, and to ensure that we continue to evolve and meet the needs of our consumers with agility and innovation, we have decided to discontinue the operation of some linear channels in Brazil from February 28, 2025. This decision includes the closure of Star Channel, Cinecanal, FX, National Geographic, Disney Channel and Baby TV, without impacting our sports channels.”

Over the years, the channel has released works that are loved internationally to this day, including titles such as “Camp Rock”, “High School Musical”, “Hannah Montana”, “Wizards of Waverly Place”, “That’s So Raven ”, “Zack & Cody”, “Good Luck, Charlie”, “Lizzie McGuire” and many others.

Due to the enormous success of these productions, some ended up receiving different spin-offs, whether in the form of a series or even a film. However, what many may not know is that some of the most popular titles should have received even more spin-offs, which ended up being canceled and shelved by Disney Channel.

The information was revealed by the journalist and author Ashley Spencer in his book “Disney High: The Untold Story of the Rise and Fall of Disney Channel’s Tween Empire”, where we discover some spin-offs and unreleased titles that, unfortunately, did not see the light of day.

On the pages, Ashley says that, in fact, he heard stories behind the scenes about the planning of a fourth film in the “High School Musical” franchise, a second film for “Lizzie McGuire”, as well as a spin-off focused on Miranda Sanchez’s younger sister , character from the Lizzie McGuire series, where the protagonist would be played by Selena Gomez.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Spencer also states that he would like to have seen the recorded pilot episode of the canceled series “Madison High”, a spin-off of “High School Musical” which would have starred Katherine McNamara (Shadowhunters), where students would seek to create a revolutionary theater program with the help of Ms. Darbus (Alyson Reed).

“I would have loved to see Madison High, which is the pilot [do musical de 2012] that they filmed with Beanie Feldstein,” says Ashley. “I think they bit off more than they could chew, because doing a musical every episode is a lot more difficult than doing a standalone musical, budget-wise.”

During the conversation, the journalist also revealed that “High School Musical 3” almost went to theaters in a very different way from the one we know today. This is because, according to her, Disney Channel executives even considered turning the film into something Halloween themed, but the idea ended up being discarded.

“So — I think it would have been horrible — but when they were reviewing the third High School Musical before it came out in theaters, the network executives were talking about making it [temático] Halloween and supernatural. It seems like it could have been a disaster, but I’m really intrigued by Troy and Sharpay dealing with ghosts or aliens at East High.”

To date, the book “Disney High: The Untold Story of the Rise and Fall of Disney Channel’s Tween Empire” does not yet have a translated version into Portuguese.