Star Wars: The Mandalorian Is Arriving Early This Week

For the past few weeks, Star Wars fans have anxiously awaited Friday mornings, as the day has brought new episodes of Star Wars: The Mandalorian to Disney+. The first live-action Star Wars series has been a major hit for the streaming service, thanks in large part to the obsession surrounding Baby Yoda, an adorable new character that appeared at the conclusion of the show's first episode. This week, unlike the past several, the new episode of The Mandalorian won't actually be arriving on Friday. We're getting "Chapter 7" a couple of days early.

This Friday marks the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in theaters, bringing an end to the Skywalker Saga that has spanned more than 40 years. Disney and Lucasfilm clearly don't want anything getting in the way of that event, and certainly don't want to see the penultimate episode of The Mandalorian forgotten about in the wake of its big screen counterpart. So Disney+ is simply shifting the release of the episode in order to avoid Rise of Skywalker altogether.

The next episode of The Mandalorian will instead be released on Wednesday, December 18th, two days earlier than normal. So if you're hoping to stay in the know about all things Baby Yoda, and you don't want anything spoiled for you regarding The Mandalorian, you'll want to be sure and tune in first thing Wednesday.

Of course, there is also a negative side to this release strategy. The seventh episode of The Mandalorian is arriving early, but the eighth is sticking to its planned release date. This means that the finale is being released on Disney+ on Friday, December 27th, a full nine days after the penultimate episode. That's a longer wait than most are used to with The Mandalorian, so we will all need to work on our patience.

The bigger wait will come at the beginning of the new year when The Mandalorian has finished its first season on Disney+. The second installment is already in production, but it will likely still be a while before we get to see Pedro Pascal in action again. Hopefully the offseason won't be too long.

Are you looking forward to the new episode of The Mandalorian this week? Let us know in the comments!