Disney+ Documentary ‘Finding Michael’ “Debut Date Shifted” Leaving Fans Hanging For Outcome

Some confusion this weekend in the UK, as viewers waiting for a much-hyped documentary on Disney+ found they were unable to view it. 

Popular TV reality star and podcaster Spencer Matthews has been doing the publicity rounds all week, publicising his documentary Finding Michael, set for its premiere on Disney+ on Friday 3 March. 

The documentary follows Matthews as he sets about attempting to recover his late elder brother Michael’s body from Mount Everest, where he went missing in 1999 after becoming the youngest British climber to scale the summit. 

But viewers wanting to follow the story found they were unable to watch the documentary on the Disney+ app, with Matthews later posting a message on Instagram to say the date for debut had been postponed, no reason given:

“Apologies to everyone trying to view Finding Michael on Disney+. The debut date has shifted and we’ll update you as soon as we have the timings.”

Fans are dismayed at the bumping of the premiere date, not least because Disney has very effectively kept under wraps the film’s denouement – no critics or fans who’ve yet watched the documentary have revealed whether or not Michael’s body was discovered and successfully brought home. 

Michael Matthews went missing in May 1999. He had scaled the summit of Everest, becoming the youngest British climber to do so. Spencer was 10 when his brother went missing, and it was only in 2017 that a stranger sent through a photograph from Everest – including an unclear depiction of a body wearing a summit suit the same colour customarily worn by Michael – that Spencer began to investigate the possibility of retracing the same ground himself. 

In fact, Spencer Matthews spent the entire six weeks of his time on the mountain at Base Camp, and the film includes both his contemporary experience and footage of his brother Michael during his last days alive more than two decades before.