Love, Victor is finally coming to Disney Plus in the UK after being shunted onto ‘adult’ service
Michael Cimino as Victor in the Love, Simon spin-off Love, Victor. (Disney)
Love, Victor will land in the UK as part of a new Disney Plus Star line-up.
The Love, Simon spin-off premiered in the US to critical acclaim in June 2020, telling the story of a teenager (named, you guessed it, Victor) coming to terms with his sexuality.
But British fans were left disappointed when the series didn’t make it to Disney Plus in the UK – in America, it was controversially shunted from the streamer to its sister service, Hulu, due to its “adult themes”.
However, the House of Mouse has announced that Love, Victor will belatedly arrive on British screens as part of Star, a new strand of grown-up content.
Launching 23 February, Disney Plus’ Star will be available to all subscribers and will include Love, Victor, along with classic series such as Desperate Housewives, Prison Break and The X Files, and contemporary hits Black-ish and Atlanta.
The new addition comes with a price bump for the streamer, from £5.99 to £7.99 with a seven-day free trial (existing subscribers will keep the current rate until 23 August).
Love, Victor season two will be ‘red-blooded’.
The decision to sell Love, Victor as part of Disney’s adult fare rather than on its family-oriented streamer was originally made without showrunner Brian Tanen – but, he has said that ultimately he feels it was the right call because of the freedom it gives the show.
“As we progress into future seasons, and as our teenagers grow up, these things that make up the fabric of teenage life – including adult and sexual experiences – are just going to be easier to tell on a more adult network like Hulu,” Tanen told Digital Spy.
Tanen and his writers feel that including sexual experiences is crucial to telling an authentically queer story.
“In the writers’ room, we discussed how one of the biggest problems with LGBTQ+ characters in TV and film is they’re almost always neutered,” he continued.
“They can be the funny sidekick, they can be the best friend, but you rarely see the narrative centre around a gay character having crushes and sexual feelings and sexual experiences.
“Part of being gay is that experience. It’s a sexuality, and part of sexuality includes sex. We didn’t want these to just be chaste crushes. We wanted this character to be a red-blooded American teenager who has these kind of feelings, and eventually will want to act on them.”
Creators Issac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, who also penned the script for Love, Simon, agreed and said that when writing the first season for Disney Plus, “there were certainly moments, particularly with language, and having teenagers talk a bit more how I think teenagers really talk in the world, where were we on Hulu from the beginning, the show would have would have been a bit edgier in its humour”.
Aptaker told The Hollywood Reporter that for the forthcoming second season, “we’re doing it now, so we’re really excited about these new scripts we’re writing, that don’t that don’t have those limitations”.
To sign up to Disney+ and stream Love, Victor go to disneyplus.com.
