Best new movies and TV series on Disney+ Australia: October 2021

Each month, new films and TV shows are added to Disney+‘s Australian library. Here’s Eliza Janssen’s recommendations for the titles most worth watching. Scroll down for the full list of everything arriving on the platform.

Top picks

Black Widow (October 6)

Scarlett Johansson’s farewell to the MCU has been exceptionally drawn out: beginning with the irreversible death of Natasha Romanoff back in Avengers: Endgame and gradually concluding as her long-awaited solo feature took a while to land in cinemas, then on Disney+ through Premiere Access. If you played your cards right, however, this might be your first (and most cost effective!) opportunity to say goodbye to Black Widow.

Now available for subscribers to watch without a hefty Premiere Access fee, Black Widow takes us back to Romanoff’s gingery roots, and the family (or at least, family figures) we’ve never met before. The most exciting part of all this is Florence Pugh’s steely Yelena Belova, who will certainly show up as a key player in the next couple of MCU phases.

Muppets Haunted Mansion (October 8)

It’s time to put on music, it’s time to..fright the frights??!! That’s the kind of corny, Halloweeny humour you can expect from this song-and-scare-filled special. Since The Muppets were acquired by Disney in 2004 (arguably making Miss Piggy an honorary Disney Princess???), this spooky adventure sets the whole gang loose in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion attraction.

The human cast includes Danny Trejo, John Stamos, Darren Criss, Will Arnett, and the late great Ed Asner…but let’s be real, we’re here for the puppet protagonists. Expect Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem as a floating ghostly band, and Fozzie Bear complaining about ‘dying up here!!’ as an undead comedian.

Just Beyond (October 13)

Back in the 90s, R.L. Stine was the king of tween horror publishing with his (mostly ghostwritten) Goosebumps series: paperbacks with genuinely freaky cover art, and a cliffhanger at the end of every damn chapter. Who would have thought that by today, those stories would have such longevity? Stine’s blend of laughs and scares has been adapted into a Goosebumps film, the thrilling Fear Street trilogy, and now this 8-part anthology.

Each episode of Just Beyond is inspired by Stine’s graphic novels of the same name, and includes such respectable talent as Tim Heidecker, Henry Thomas, Nasim Pedrad, and Mckenna Grace. With every episode dropping on the same day, you can choose the terror that most appeals to you: witches, aliens…or the evils of social media? #topical