Ahsoka’s episode 3’s runtime may upset some fans

Star Wars fans have been a little upset over the past year or so due to the episode runtimes of various Star Wars series. This includes the runtimes for Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, and The Mandalorian Season 3. Fans of these series do have a point. Television used to have seasons consisting of over 20 episodes. Every episode was at least 40 minutes long, after taking out the time spent on commercial breaks. However, the runtimes of the Star Wars series have varied in length and, at times, been disappointingly short.

According to a post by Twitter user Cryptic4kQual, who has correctly reported runtimes for other Star Wars series, including The Mandalorian, here are the runtimes for the first 3 episodes of Ahsoka:

It means the third episode is just a little over 30 minutes in length when you take out the credits. It would be fine if 30 minutes was the standard length of all these live-action series episodes, but that hasn’t been the case. Andor has had the longest episodes thus far. Compared to animation, a season of live-action Star Wars TV is just 8 episodes long, on average. Anyone expecting Ahsoka to be Rebels Season 5 should feel a little upset. Four seasons of Rebels produced 75 episodes, which means plenty of time to spend with every character and develop their arcs. In comparison, The Mandalorian‘s 3 seasons together are just 24 chapters long, and every chapter varies in duration.

In defense of LucasFilm, oftentimes, a season of live-action Star Wars can cost more than a season of an animated series. However, that shouldn’t mean that every episode can’t be 1 hour long. Fans wait years for these shows, which have very short seasons. They might as well be rewarded with hour-long episodes.

Ahsoka premieres August 23 on Disney+.