Why Disney's First Vertical Drama Is Climbing Streaming Charts

Disney+ is experimenting with a new vertical format for its original TV shows, and its first project is quickly climbing streaming charts.

Disney has debuted its first vertical TV show on Disney+, and it quickly climbed streaming charts. Disney+ is now one of the most popular streaming platforms thanks to its wide variety of TV shows and movies – and, of course, like most streaming platforms, it has been producing original content, both movies and TV shows.

Disney+’s original TV shows have a bit of everything for viewers of all ages, such as High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, Loki, Andor, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Now, Disney+ is trying a new format through which it hopes to reach a wider audience: vertical content, starting with Locker Diaries: Zombies, which is now a hit on the platform.

What Is Locker Diaries: Zombies About?

One of Disney’s most popular franchises is Zombies, which began in 2018 with the musical movie of the same name. Zombies debuted on Disney Channel as a Disney Channel Original Movie, and it was directed by Paul Hoen. Zombies, then, tells the story of Zed (Milo Manheim), a zombie football player, and Addison (Meg Donnelly), a human cheerleader.

In the world of Zombies, an accident at the local power plant caused an explosion that turned half the population into zombies. The unaffected built a wall to separate them from the zombies, but after the creation of bracelets that suppress the zombies’ brain-eating impulses, both sides can coexist. As the franchise evolves, other creatures, like vampires, have been added.

Despite not being the critics’ favorite, Zombies was a hit with viewers, spawning a franchise with four sequels and two TV shows. Now, the latest addition to this unique universe is Locker Diaries: Zombies, an anthology series that follows characters from Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires, and which has the particularity of having a vertical format.

Locker Diaries consists of 11 short videos in a vertical format, with new episodes released every Saturday through mid-April. In addition to being available to stream on Disney+, the episodes of Locker Diaries will also be available to watch on Disney Channel’s YouTube channel and TikTok.

Why Disney+ Is Embracing Vertical Videos

The vertical format of Locker Diaries: Zombies might have been a surprise to fans of the franchise, but Disney had already shared its plans for this specific format. Disney announced in January 2026 that vertical format content would be produced, saying they want to explore its use in different ways and across categories (via Deadline).

Through this, Disney looks to boost daily engagement, especially as there’s heavy competition when it comes to vertical format content. Platforms like YouTube have already implemented vertical content with YouTube Shorts, and this was a response to the rise in popularity of Instagram’s Reels and everything on TikTok.

In that announcement, Disney said there’s a lot of short-form content they can cover, so they will be careful with how they integrate this format so it won’t be a “disjointed, random experience” for the audience. At the time of writing, Locker Diaries: Zombies is the only vertical format show from Disney, and it’s unknown what will come next.

Short-Form Content Is Here To Stay

Vertical short-form content is not something one would have expected to find on Disney+, but looking at how content creation and storytelling have evolved in recent years, I would say that Disney took too long to experiment with this format.

TikTok completely changed how content is made and consumed, though that success can probably be traced back to platforms like Snapchat and later Instagram with Stories. The trick here is that the vertical format doesn’t quite fit with movies (something that some companies and filmmakers learned the hard way), and it works best with TV shows or bite-sized stories.

YouTube already has shows made for YouTube Shorts, various companies and users on TikTok have created shows on the platform, and different series can be found on Instagram Reels, too. Truly, it was only a matter of time for bigger platforms like Disney+ to start producing short-form content, though I wasn’t expecting Disney to do it in a vertical format.

In terms of boosting engagement, it makes sense that Disney is experimenting with a vertical format, as it invites the audience to watch its content on their phones. The trick here will be the content itself, as there’s a lot of material Disney can choose from, but not every type of audience will be interested in content in a vertical format.

Disney+ has taken a huge step with Locker Diaries: Zombies, and it’s to be seen what other short-form, vertical content it will release in the near future, as well as which other streaming platforms will join this type of storytelling.

Source: Deadline.