WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Mandalorian.
Disney+’s launch coincided with the arrival of Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian, however, it doesn’t seem like it has a set release time for new episodes. There’s been two episodes released thus far from the first live-action Star Wars TV series, and both outings were rolled out at different times of the days which irked a lot of viewers. Despite this, it appears like the streaming service has no intention of having a permanent hours in terms of fresh content drops.
Starring Pedro Pascal as the lone gunslinger named Dyn Jarren, The Mandalorian takes place five years after the events of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. His current mission: retrieve a Force sensitive infant from the same species as Jedi Master Yoda. Not much is known regarding the story after that, but it’s safe to assume that the remainder of the season will focus on Dyn as he becomes the caretaker of his mysterious bounty.
The Mandalorian’s premiere was immediately available on Disney+ when it went live on November 12 (Tuesday). The platform’s roll out was glitchy, with confusing time frames depending on the territories (or devices people are using) it was launching (United States, Canada and Netherlands). Initially, it was supposed to be accessible 6am EST that day, but some were able to get in the platform hours earlier (some much later due to technical difficulties), giving them the opportunity to watch the show ahead. At this point, it’s understandable that The Mandalorian’s debut time was confusing considering that it largely hinged on the launch of Disney’s streaming platform. However, things became more chaotic and puzzling when it was time for episode 2 to drop.
Technically, The Mandalorian is set to release new episodes every Friday, so it unveiled a new one that same week. This gave fans two outings within a few days apart, albeit both with shorter runtimes. The assumption is that fresh content is supposed to drop 12 midnight PST - however, episode 2 wasn’t available on the platform until the wee hours of the morning for most, leaving them waiting for hours. This understandably irked a lot of people and Disney has yet to address it.
For an organization that usually runs a good public relations campaign, the lack of any official statement from Disney regarding the confusion on The Mandalorian’s weekly release times is quite unusual. However, they might have a pretty good reason why. Despite mixed to positive critical reviews, it’s clear that the majority of the public is hooked on the show - and that’s such a positive for the Star Wars franchise, which has had a tumultuous last few years. By keeping fans guessing on when it’s going to drop, they’re able to keep the show at the forefront of public consciousness, particularly on social media. This was what happened last Friday when viewers kept on talking about the show for hours while they were on standby.
Whether Disney addresses this or not remains to be seen. The Mandalorian’s episode 3 is still set to release this Friday, but with no guaranteed time. Admittedly, even the supposed 12mn PST content drop for Disney+ is an oddball schedule considering that it will be 3am on the East coast by the time they roll out new episodes. For context, Netflix releases new content with that same schedule, but since it’s available in a lot more countries, they have a global audience which means that they cover more timezones. Disney+, on the other hand, is only accessible to North America and few other foreign countries thus far, and it seems reasonable for them to tailor their release times to the areas they current cater to. Regardless of how and when Disney roll out their content, fans knowing a specific time slot when fresh episodes will go live is way better than spending hours waiting for them simply because there’s no set schedule.
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