2024 is almost here, and at long last, we can get ready to put the rough days of 2023 behind us. For all the streaming nerds, a new year also means a new series of additions to Disney+. So, from the must-see comic-book movies that kickstarted the superhero boom to the smaller-scale documentary shorts about ordinary people working to make the world a better place, we’re highlighting the best films coming to Disney+ in January 2024.

X-Men
Streaming Jan. 5
X-Men Release Date July 13, 2000 Rating PG-13 Runtime 104

As hard as it is to believe now, there was a time when comic-book movies were not guaranteed box office success. That changed with 2000’s X-Men, and the long development process to make the movie. X-Men took a refreshingly adult approach to the material while still treating its source material with reverence and demanded that mainstream audiences get on board with a world full of mutants or go home.

Everyone knows the setup by now. In a world with a rising population of mutants, the kindly Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), leader of a school for “gifted students,” clashes with the extremist Magneto (Ian McKellen), who seeks to overthrow the human race and put an end to the prejudice mutants face.

Dragged into their war are Rouge (Anna Paquin), a young girl with the ability to absorb the power and life force of other mutants, and the iconic Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, in one of the greatest performances in a superhero movie), who has a healing factor, metal claws that protrude from his knuckles, and a nasty temper. Even to this day, despite some dated visual effects, the film is surprisingly engaging, with an interesting group of core characters and a thoughtful approach to prejudice and how communities affected by it live with it. We’ll have to wait a while for the sequels to hit Disney+, but the one that started it all arrives on Jan. 5.

The Last Repair Shop
Streaming Jan. 23

For the crowd more interested in documentaries, a widely acclaimed fall festival favorite and potential Oscar-winning short film contender is coming to Disney+ soon. The Last Repair Shop explores the titular warehouse in downtown Los Angeles, where technicians work to repair damaged musical instruments without cost to patrons in the area, specifically public schoolchildren. Nominations at the Critics Choice Awards and a rapturously received premiere at the Telluride Film Festival promise a touching tribute to the everyday people who work to keep the power of music alive and thriving every day.

Director Kris Bowers is himself a film composer (he scored 2018’s Green Book and this year’s Haunted Mansion reboot), so clearly, this is a subject to which he feels a personal attachment. Critical response has indicated that he’s crafted a love letter to the people who gave him the means to pursue his love of music. The short is also said to explore the lives of four technicians at the shop, including a Mexican immigrant, a refugee from Azerbaijan, and a man coming to terms with his homosexuality. Thus far, the short is available to view in full on YouTube, but those with a Disney+ account will have access to it starting Jan. 23.

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Assembled: The Making of Echo
Streaming Jan. 30

It’s no secret at this point – the MCU has seen plenty of problems since Endgame, thanks to a number of underwhelming projects and an uncertain future without Kang the Conqueror, thanks to Jonathan Majors’ departure. That said, Marvel still has some promising titles on its slate, and one of them is the Disney+ series Echo, following the continuing adventures of Maya Lopez, first introduced in Hawkeye. As a sequel to that series, Lopez returns to her home in Oklahoma, where she must come to terms with her Native American roots and face off against Kingpin, hot on her tail.

Echo also raised eyebrows when it was announced as the first Disney+ series to land a TV-MA rating, and it premieres in its entirety on Jan. 9, with a documentary about the making of the series set to follow by the end of the month. Considering how the creative team has openly talked about going for a grittier crime drama aesthetic, more akin to Breaking Bad, and the first reactions say it will please fans of Netflix’s Daredevil, getting any insight into the series’ creation will surely be interesting. If Echo pleases the fans, they might have to give this making-of documentary a look.

Related Marvel’s Echo Releases Kingpin Teaser as Series Just Two Weeks Away Marvel’s Echo arrives on Disney+ in just a couple of weeks, and will begin a new violent chapter of the MCU.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Still Streaming on Disney+

Even though the great Indiana Jones’ final adventure was added to Disney+ earlier this past month, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny remains a clear recent highlight among the new additions to the catalog. Several years after the end of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, we reunite with a much older and more jaded Indy, who gets swept up into a brand-new adventure after a NASA mathematician (also a former Nazi; remember, Indy hates those guys) uncovers the fated dial of Archimedes. Knowing the device grants its user the ability to go back in time and alter the course of history, Indy teams up with his goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) to save the world one last time.

Steven Spielberg, who helmed the first four installments, relinquishes his reins for the last in the series, letting James Mangold (Ford v Ferrari, Logan) take control. Admittedly, Mangold lacks his predecessor’s visual eye, and the action sequences don’t live up to the best action scenes in the Indiana Jones franchise. But Mangold compensates for this with heart, showing an Indy grappling with his mortality in a world that may no longer need him. And the film certainly deserves credit for its absolutely bonkers climax. It may not be Indiana Jones at his peak, but it’s still a touching send-off for an icon.