Of all the new original series that have come to Disney+, it’s possible none has been quite as highly anticipated as Obi-Wan Kenobi, the new Star Wars limited series that will see the return of Ewan McGregor in the title role. Fans have been waiting a long time for this one, and unfortunately they’re going to have to wait a bit longer, as the premiere date of Obi-Wan Kenobi has been pushed back from May 25 to May 27, but when the show does come, fans will be getting even more of it on day one.
In a video posted on the official Star Wars Twitter, Ewan McGregor himself announced that Obi-Wan Kenobi is seeing its premiere date pushed back. However, he also revealed that when May 27 comes along, Disney+ viewers will get access to not one, but two episodes of the show. McGregor says…
I have some important news. Our premiere date is moving, just a couple of days, from Wednesday to Friday, May the 27th. But here’s the exciting part, the first two episodes will premiere together.
Standard practice for Disney+ dramatic series has been to release episodes weekly rather than the “bingeable” format that we often see with other streaming services. Having said that, we have seen that format modified now and then. Hawkeye debuted on Disney+ last year in the same way, with the first two episodes hitting at once. Nobody is likely to complain about getting more of this new show on day one
The decision to move Obi-Wan Kenobi is interesting however. It’s only been shifted a couple of days, so it’s not like this decision was made for production reasons. And the May 25 date was significant, because it’s the day that the original Star Wars premiered back in 1977. It also means that Obi-Wan Kenobi is debuting the same day as Season 4 of Stranger Things on Netflix, and while competition doesn’t mean quite the same thing in the age of streaming, you can easily watch both on day one, it’s still curious.
There are a couple of other reasons the move may have been made, one is that Disney+ has found that Friday premiers work better than Wednesday. When Disney+ first launched, everything new came out on Fridays but in recent months we’ve seen new content hit on both Wednesdays and Fridays. Moon Knight just debuted on a Wednesday as one recent example. However, the entire Obi-Wan Kenobi series isn’t moving to Friday. Following the premiere, all other episodes will arrive as scheduled on Wednesdays.
The other possibility is that this is being done because of Star Wars Celebration. The big convention is making its return this year, but Star Wars Celebration doesn’t start until May 26. By pushing the premier they can make the show’s launch part of the event, rather than seeing it premiere before the convention begins.
Whatever the reason, fans who have waited this long to see the return of Obi-Wan Kenobi can probably handle waiting a bit longer. It’s only a couple days, and we’ll get even more of the show once we make it to May 27.
