D23 Review: What Disney’s Dogged Commitment to Its Past Says About Its Future

thewrap.com:

D23 Expo, the Disney fan event held every two years, just wrapped up in Anaheim, California. For fans of the brand, it’s their chance to get a first look at new movies, television shows and theme park attractions from every corner of the vast Disney empire and to celebrate (along with other like-minded folks) the stories that mean so much to them.

And for those of us who cover the company, it gives an opportunity to see what each part of it will be offering up, outlining where the company is headed in the next few years.

But after this year’s D23 Expo, which was packed with presentations about sequels and spinoffs and decidedly light on original storytelling, it looks very much like Disney’s future is mired in the past.

And they’re running out of past to mine.Movies took up most of the weekend’s presentations, with a giant panel devoted to Disney’s live-action product, Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios on Friday and another given to Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios and 20th Century Studios on Saturday. (These were held in Hall D23, a cavernous room stuffed with more than 7,000 attendees.) On Friday, the presentation, hosted by Sean Bailey, President of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production, rolled out a new slate of live-action movies coming to both Disney+ and theaters worldwide.