There’s good news and bad news that was announced today: the bad news is that the premiere date for Obi-Wan Kenobi has been pushed back, but the good news is that it’s more than worth it.
Star Wars posted a video with Ewan McGregor sharing that the series will now debut on Friday, May 27, instead of the previously scheduled release date of Wednesday, May 25 – so it’s been pushed back two days. But on that Friday, the first two episodes of the series will be dropping instead of just one!
So one way to look at it is that we’ll be seeing the first episode of the series two days later than planned, but we’ll be seeing the second episode five days earlier than planned too. From there, the episodes will drop on each subsequent Wednesday for the duration of the show.
There was no reasoning given for this change, but it’s not hard to speculate as to why it might be. Star Wars Celebration begins Thursday, May 26, and so the first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi will now premiere during Celebration. I imagine there will be environments for fans at Celebration to watch the debut of this show together, taking in the return of one of the most beloved characters in the saga to the screen for the first time in 17 years together. If for no other reason than that, it makes tons of sense.
And I’ll also say that I love the Friday release date for Star Wars content on Disney+, so even though this is a temporary change, I think it’s great. And I’ve said before that, as Star Wars and Marvel shows continue to release with increased frequency and are bound to overlap, I think it could be a wise strategy to have Marvel on Wednesdays and Star Wars on Fridays. But it doesn’t sound like any of that is in the plans, and Kenobi will return to Wednesdays after the first week, but I’m certainly not complaining about a Friday release either.
One other possibility for the change – though this one is purely speculative – is that Disney might want the series to end a week earlier than originally planned, for whatever reason. Could it be that another Star Wars show will be dropping shortly after the conclusion of Obi-Wan Kenobi? The series will conclude on Wednesday, June 22, a week earlier than we initially assumed, due to the first two episodes dropping in the first week.
Whatever the reason, or combination of reasons, I think this is a great change, and I’ll gladly wait two more days to get the first two episodes of this series, all coming during Celebration! What a week that will be for Star Wars fans!!!
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