Netflix aims to replicate the success of Mickey Mouse and "Star Wars/Star Wars" by trying to build brands that cut across movies, television, games, and consumer products. The teams at the company that changed the way we watch television and movies plot ways to get more out of the biggest shows and movies on their own platform with universes and characters that can return to audiences again and again.

The franchise strategy, details of which are disclosed here for the first time, is intended to complement Netflix's efforts to build a vast library of original programming with some content for all tastes.

"We want to have our version of 'Star Wars' or our version of 'Harry Potter,' and we're working hard to build that," said Matthew Thunell, Netflix's vice president. "But those aren't built overnight."

Netflix's franchise initiative comes at a critical time, after two rounds of layoffs amid subscriber losses. Netflix is accelerating work to build a low-cost, advertising-supported version of the service, which it once promised never to do. On Tuesday, the company is expected to report the loss of another two million subscribers when it announces quarterly earnings. Its shares have sunk 70% this year.

Some of Netflix's current partners, on condition of anonymity, said they have been frustrated by what they see as a lack of collaboration between the film and television groups. This has hampered efforts to capitalize on success through sequels, spin-offs or movie adaptations of a successful series, they lamented.

Thunell offered a different view. He and a corporate spokesperson described an environment of close collaboration between creative executives, who may independently develop greenlight projects, but work toward the same goals.

"In a traditional studio, there are these big barriers between the feature team and the animation team and the series team," he said. "Because Netflix is a very young organization, those dividers simply never had time to be built."