The Secret’s Out: Disney Is Planning to Kill Hulu, And It Doesn’t Want You To Know.
So what’s the deal with Hulu in 2026?
We’ve known for a while that Disney was planning to get rid of the Hulu app, bundling all of its content into Disney+. That’s why it pushes the Disney Bundle so hard, and why every new update seems to bring the two services closer together. The process started two years ago, when Disney+ added all of Hulu’s library to its platform for bundle subscribers.
But despite former CEO Bob Iger’s 2025 claims that the company planned to “fully integrate” Hulu into Disney+ after closing out its deal to buy Hulu from Comcast, Disney is still insisting publicly that Hulu is here to stay.
Last month, a Disney rep told Variety that “there are no current plans to sunset the Hulu app.” This came directly after Disney+ rolled out the ability for Hulu users to sync their profiles across services, including watch histories, watchlists, and recommendations. You could take the company at its word—maybe it only means to make the two apps work better together, while allowing subscribers to keep Hulu separate if they choose—but journalists are calling B.S.
Read on to find out why Disney’s statements aren’t quite adding up.
What we know for sure about the Disney+/Hulu merger
Business Insider recently uncovered an internal company document indicating that the Disney+/Hulu merger is, indeed, still in the works.
According to Business Insider, the document said that “the Hulu tech stack and app will be decommissioned after all the users have transitioned” in a process codenamed “Project Gemini.” (This has no relation to Google’s A.I. agent, Gemini. Disney likely chose the name because Gemini is the Latin word for twins, as Disney+ and Hulu have become twin streaming services.)
One anonymous Hulu employee even went so far as to tell Business Insider that “Hulu is on life support at this point, with no active development. As CableTV.com’s anime correspondent, this sounds really familiar. Funimation was in a similar state before Crunchyroll completely absorbed it in 2024.
It doesn’t even make sense for customers to subscribe to standalone Hulu anymore. As of writing, a standalone Hulu subscription is $11.99/mo. with ads and $18.99/mo. without. A Disney+ subscription costs the same. Meanwhile, a Disney+/Hulu bundle is $12.99/mo. with ads and $19.99/mo. without. A bundle is only a dollar more than a standalone subscription, giving us a hint at what the newly combined streaming service may cost in the future.
So I’d say that all signs point to the two apps merging. Maybe the Hulu app branding won’t totally go away—maybe they’ll call it Hul-sney+. There’s probably a focus group workshopping new streaming service names right now, just as there’s probably one over at Paramount Skydance figuring out what Paramount+ will be called once it eats HBO Max.
At the very least, a combined Disney+/Hulu app would do away with the headache of so many Disney Bundle package varieties.
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