“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” will begin streaming on Disney Plus two months earlier than previously scheduled.
The final installment of the original Star Wars movie series will debut on the streaming service — when else? — on May 4, colloquially known as “Star Wars Day” among fans of the galactic movie franchise. With the addition to Disney Plus, for the first time ever, fans will be able to stream all nine films in George Lucas’s Skywalker saga all in one place.
Other content Disney Plus has teed up for May the 4th are eight-episode docuseries “Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian,” and the series finale of the animated “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.”
With theaters shuttered nationwide during the COVID-19 pandemic, Disney is leaning more heavily than ever on Disney Plus as an outlet for its premium entertainment product. The company previously moved up the release of “Frozen 2” on the subscription-video service, and set June 12 as the direct-to-streaming premiere date for Kenneth Branagh’s “Artemis Fowl” live-action sci-fi fantasy. Stay-at-home quarantines have likely helped boost Disney Plus signups, which the company on April 8 said surpassed 50 million globally.
“Rise of Skywalker” will be available to Disney Plus subscribers worldwide on May 4, with the exception of the Netherlands where it will be available May 5 because of the country’s Remembrance Day holiday.
“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Naomi Ackie, Domhnall Gleeson, Richard E. Grant, Lupita Nyong’o, Keri Russell, Joonas Suotamo, Kelly Marie Tran, with Ian McDiarmid and Billy Dee Williams.
The J.J. Abrams-directed movie, after hitting theaters Dec. 20, 2020, quickly topped $1 billion at the worldwide box office although it ended up trailing “The Last Jedi” and “The Force Awakens.”
SOURCE: Variety by Todd Spangler
