Disney has formally announced their plans for a streaming series focusing on Tom Hiddleston's Marvel Cinematic Universe villain Loki

Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger made the announcement Thursday during an earnings call with investors, during which time he also confirmed that their new streaming service will be called Disney+.Our original report from September 18, 2018, on the Marvel streaming service shows follows.

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Plans are reportedly underway for Tom Hiddleston's Loki and Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch to anchor their own TV shows on Disney's subscription streaming platform, according to a new report from Variety.In an effort to expand the the lucrative Marvel Cinematic Universe to the small screen, Variety reports that "other beloved superheroes who have yet to appear in their own standalone movies" could also headline their own series as part of the ambitious new strategy, but the shows would not feature top-tier Avengers who have already been the focus of film franchises, like Iron Man and Captain America. (Although you'd hope Thor might pop in to bully his brother once in a while.) Marvel and Disney declined to confirm Variety's report. IGN has reached out for comment from Disney.Variety notes that plans for the rumored shows are still in early development, but that these would be the versions of the characters seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with the actors who have been portraying the characters in the movies reprising their roles. There's no word on the budget for each show should it go to series, but according to Variety, sources close to the production indicate "the budgets are expected to be hefty, rivaling those of a major studio production," since we're guessing that Hiddleston and Olsen wouldn't come cheap.Per Variety, "each series is expected to include six to eight episodes," and the projects are being described as limited series, meaning that they theoretically wouldn't extend past one season. (Of course, HBO initially said the same thing about Big Little Lies, and now Meryl Streep is starring in Season 2 .)The news would certainly help soothe some of the pain fans are still feeling after the body count of Avengers: Infinity War - although it remains to be seen whether the shows would be prequels or set in the current MCU continuity, since everything could change with Avengers 4. Given that Marvel is such a lucrative part of Disney's already enviable portfolio, it makes sense that the upcoming streaming service would attempt to leverage some of the MCU's blockbuster clout, especially since Marvel's "street-level" heroes (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and The Punisher) are presumably tied up with Netflix for as long as the rival digital network wants to keep renewing them. And, unlike all of Marvel's other TV shows to date, which are produced by Marvel Television and overseen by Jeph Loeb (including the Marvel-Netflix shows, ABC's Agents of SHIELD, Freeform's Cloak and Dagger, Hulu's Runaways, Fox's The Gifted, and FX's Legion) these new shows would reportedly be produced by Marvel Studios under the eye of Kevin Feige, who is responsible for shepherding the MCU to big screen success.We still don't know much about Disney's streaming service beyond the fact that it's expected to launch in 2019. Below, check out all the projects Disney has confirmed for the platform so far - including a revival of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and a new big budget Star Wars series from Iron Man director Jon Favreau - and read our wishlist for the properties we want to see What do you think of a potential Loki or Scarlet Witch show, and which other supporting MCU characters would you like to see headlining their own series? Share your reactions in the comments!