Will Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Get an Early Disney+ Release?

Major movie studios have been forced to adjust how they are releasing their films for the time being, as the coronavirus pandemic has forced movie theaters around the country to close their doors and people to stay in their homes as much as possible. Some movies have been delayed indefinitely, while others have been given an accelerated digital release. Disney has taken both approaches with its various films, delaying upcoming releases like Mulan and Black Widow while moving up the streaming debut for films like Onward. Could Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker be the next popular film to get put on Disney+ earlier than expected?

When theaters first began closing, Disney announced that it had moved up the Disney+ debut of Frozen 2 by nearly three months, allowing families around the world to watch together. A week later, the House of Mouse broke the news that the recently-released Onward would be available for digital purchase that day, followed by a Disney+ premiere on April 3rd. That puts Pixar's latest on the streaming service just one month after it hit theaters.

Disney and Lucasfilm have yet to make any such announcement regarding The Rise of Skywalker, the final film in The Skywalker Saga. The movie was released on digital on-demand three days ahead of schedule, but that's been it. Surely it's going to be moving to Disney+ sooner, rather than later.

These are unprecedented times, and there's no telling how long the theater closures will last. Streaming is king at the moment and Disney is well aware of that. Why else would a Pixar movie become available for streaming just a month after hitting theaters?

Rise of Skywalker is in a slightly different scenario than Onward, as it had a full theatrical run and physical copies of the film were already being produced when all of this began. It's likely that Disney wanted to continue with the scheduled Blu-ray rollout and sell as many copies of Rise of Skywalker as possible.

That said, once Rise of Skywalker has been available to purchase on Blu-ray for a couple of weeks, don't be surprised to see an upcoming Disney+ release date announced.

When do you think Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will be released on Disney+? Let us know in the comments!