Hulu may not be getting the axe today, but Disney is clearly steering Hulu users toward Disney+. A new report says the company is working on a multi-phase Project Gemini plan that would pull more Hulu content and features into Disney+, with the unified setup expected to be finished by the end of the year.
Disney is publicly sticking to softer language, saying there are ”no current plans to sunset” the separate Hulu app. That sounds reassuring right up until you look at the rest of the picture: Hulu has already been folded into Disney+ for bundle subscribers, profile data can now move across the two services, and the standalone app is being left to age in place. Streaming companies love calling this ”integration” before they call it a funeral.
Project Gemini is the next step for Hulu and Disney+
According to the report, the Hulu tech stack and app would eventually be decommissioned after users migrate into Disney+. That would follow Disney’s 2023 rollout of Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers, which created a Hulu hub inside the Disney+ app and was sold as a cleaner viewing experience.
Earlier this month, Disney also began letting select Hulu subscribers link their profiles to Disney+, carrying over watch history, watchlists, and recommendations. For users, that is convenience. For Disney, it is also a neat way to make two services behave like one without admitting the second one is becoming optional.
The standalone Hulu app looks increasingly redundant
The internal document reportedly says major new features are no longer being added to the Hulu app, and three senior Disney tech employees told Business Insider that resources are shifting away from it. One Hulu product employee described the service as being on ”life support,” while another engineer said maintaining two separate pipelines no longer makes sense.
- Hulu content is already available inside Disney+ for bundle subscribers.
- Profile linking now moves watch history, watchlists, and recommendations across.
- Disney says there are no current plans to sunset the standalone app.
That leaves Hulu in a familiar streaming trap: still alive, but steadily stripped of reasons to exist separately. If Disney keeps pushing the merge, the real question is not whether Hulu disappears, but how long it keeps the badge while the features quietly move next door.