Why does Disney+ release new Star Wars shows on Wednesdays?

When Disney+ first launched in the US, Star Wars fans were treated to eight straight weeks of waking up every Friday morning to a new episode of The Mandalorian. Not long after, the end of the workweek brought with it new episodes of The Clone Wars. Fridays were good. Fridays were plentiful. Then everything changed.

In June 2021, The Hollywood Reporter made the announcement that Disney+ had officially shifted its original content release day to Wednesdays instead of Fridays. Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett was the first series set in a galaxy far, far away to adopt this particular release schedule since The Bad Batch began its Friday releases in May. The show continued releasing on Fridays through its entire first season.

Even now, official reports can only assume the change had to do with subscriber attention. Disney+ was releasing so much content that it essentially didn’t want to accidentally compete with itself. The Hollywood Reporter offered this at the time:

"“Sources say the shift is designed to accommodate the increased volume of original content on Disney+. The Wednesday schedule is strictly for original series, including The Mandalorian and other Star Wars and Marvel TV series.”"

This does not apply to original movies premiering on Disney+, which typically drop on Fridays. Presumably, this means Disney+ original TV series and movies don’t have to compete with each other because subscribers can focus on one at a time.

Looking at the “streaming wars” at large, Disney+ likely also wants to avoid competing with Netflix on Fridays, which is the day that platform typically releases new episodes or seasons of its original programming.

Contrary to what many believe, Wednesday probably isn’t the most popular or even the most convenient day to release new Star Wars content — it likely has everything to do with money and nothing to do with us. Why are you not surprised?

But new Star Wars in the middle of the week does make hump day a little easier to push through, aside from the exhaustion from having to wake up at the break of dawn to avoid Twitter spoilers. Chances are, Wednesday TV releases are here to stay on Disney+. We might as well make the most of it. New Star Wars is better than no Star Wars, after all.

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