A new supernatural-themed animated series is coming to Disney+.
Premiering on June 26, The Doomies follows the adventures of best friends Bobby and Romy when they accidentally open a portal to the underworld. Now their quiet French coastal town of Ouimper is a draw for ghosts, monsters and sorcerers. Teaming up with stoic monster hunter Kim and lazy yet knowledgeable lighthouse keeper Doug, Bobby and Romy take on the creatures of doom so they can close the portal and save Ouimper.
Created by Andrès Fernandez, Henry Gifford and Rémi “Pozla” Zaarour with production handled by Xilam Animation and Disney Branded Television, The Doomies has the potential for being a big hit this summer. Which is why some fans are worried about the show’s future.
Disney has a pattern of greenlighting a dark, creepy animated series that pushes the boundaries of what a kid’s show looks like. Fans fall in love with it, then Disney either cuts it short or censors the hell out of it. By the time people realize what’s happening, it’s too late.
The Doomies could break that cycle. But right now, it’s showing some warning signs.
The Shows That Came Before Doomies
Gravity Falls is a mystery-comedy created by Alex Hirsch that ran from 2012 to 2016 on Disney Channel. The show focused on twins Dipper and Mabel as they spend the summer in a weird paranormal town of Gravity Falls with their great uncle Stan Pines. To this day, the show is considered a classic for its memorable characters and for balancing humor with a complex, overarching mystery.
But working on Gravity Falls was a constant battle behind the scenes. Creator Alex Hirsch spent years pushing back against Disney’s Standards and Practices team. Just about everything was flagged, from asking Alex to change the name of an owl-themed restaurant because it had the word “hoo-ha” to requesting that the loving relationship between gay couple Sheriff Daryl Blubs and Deputy Edwin Durland should remain “comical versus flirtatious.” Eventually, he chose to end the show on his own terms after two seasons. That was his call, but the battles over censorship left a mark on how fans see the company.
While Alex Hirsch had the freedom to decide the fate of his show, The Owl House didn’t get that luxury. Dana Terrace’s fantasy-horror series about a human girl who trains to become a witch in the Demon Realm ran from 2020 to 2023. The series made animation history when protagonist Luz Noceda became the first openly bisexual lead character in a Disney animated series.
Despite its passionate fanbase and cult status, Disney still cut it short. Instead of a full third season, the show got three 44-minute specials and then it was done. Terrace went on Reddit and explained that a Disney executive decided The Owl House didn’t fit the brand due to the show being serialized and attracted an older audience.
Both The Owl House and Gravity Falls are some of the most beloved animated series of the last decade. And neither got the proper treatment they deserved.
So Where Does The Doomies Fit In?
The Doomies has been in the works since 2022. It was supposed to premiere on Disney+ on December 31, 2024. Then it was pushed to 2025. Then it was February 2026. Now it’s confirmed to debut this month. It’s been delayed so many times that fans wondered if it would ever come out. The lack of updates between a work-in-progress screening at the 2024 Annecy Film Festival and the official trailer dropping in June 2026 (nearly two years) didn’t help.
The Doomies has been rated TV-Y7, which is aimed at kids seven and up. The creators have said the show was written for teenagers and co-viewing with older audiences. It’s an idea that represents one of the problems Disney has with some of their animated shows. They’re supposed to appeal to children but usually the storytelling and the characters strike a chord with an older crowd.
Then there’s the fact that all 22 episodes of the first season will drop on the same day. It sounds like a good idea since you have the option to decide how you want to watch it. You can binge all the episodes or you can watch them in batches.
But a weekly release schedule keeps a show on people’s radar. They give audiences time to theorize and get invested in the story. The fandom grows at a gradual pace as everyone is counting down to the next episode.
Dropping everything at once creates a spike. People watch it, talk about it for a weekend, and then move on. That’s risky for a new show that needs time to find its audience. It also makes it easier for Disney to decide not to renew The Doomies if the show loses its momentum after a week.
Why Do Supernatural Shows Struggle at Disney?
Why do horror-adjacent, supernatural animated shows keep hitting a wall at Disney?
At its core, horror and the supernatural requires you to dive into what some people would call uncomfortable territory. Dark humor, creepy imagery, serialized storytelling are important elements of the genre. Disney’s brand is built on being family-friendly. You never have to worry about your kids being shown inappropriate content while watching Disney-made content. Those two concepts are always going to clash.
Supernatural shows also tend to attract devoted but niche audiences rather than massive casual viewership. Disney measures the success of their shows based on the numbers they pull. A passionate community of a few million fans doesn’t always move the needle the way a broadly popular show does.
The irony is those passionate fans stick around for years and keep talking about these shows long after they end. Gravity Falls released several books that expand the show’s lore. Gravity Falls: Journal 3 and The Book of Bill became New York Times Bestsellers in 2016 and 2024 respectively. In February 2026, Dana Terrace announced that a graphic novel The Owl House: The Long-Lived King would be released September 29, 2026 and expressed hope it could open the door for The Owl House to continue as a series of graphic novels.
The return on investment is there, it’s just not the kind Disney executives are interested in.
Is There Any Reason to Hope Things Will Be Different with The Doomies?
Xilam Animation CEO Marc du Pontavise said that Disney has “a lot of faith” in The Doomies. So much so that as of June 2025, a second season is in pre-production which is a very promising sign that Disney expects this show to do well.
A Season 2 is reportedly already in pre-production, which suggests some level of internal confidence. An episode titled “Night of the Fishing Dead” was selected to compete in the TV Films category during the 2026 Annecy International Animation Film Festival. The episode was chosen out of more than 2,400 submissions and will be screened alongside other official selections from June 21-27.
Another thing to keep in mind is that The Doomies will actually make its debut at the end of this month. So many shows are trapped in development hell, cursed to never see the light of day. Fans should remain cautiously optimistic that Disney might be willing to do right by this show, but they shouldn’t let their guard down either.
Until then, the only thing that fans can do is to clear their schedules.
The Doomies will premiere on June 26, 2026 on Disney+.
