Disney + has proven to be a successful investment for House of Mouse as it now has a business to deliver its wide range of content directly to the audience every week. From the beginning, the streaming platform had promised access to much of the company’s catalog, original blockbusters, series on big-screen budgets, and new content in the MCU and Star Wars universes.
When Marvel and Star Wars released so many episodes with original content, there always had to be a time when they started overlapping. After two years of avoiding this crisis, Disney + will soon face this predicament for the first time in June as the first three episodes of Ms. Marvel will fall on the same days as the second half of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
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While concerns arise that the Marvel newcomer will struggle to get attention for Ewan McGregor’s long-awaited Star Wars return, Disney has doubled its overlap of its biggest series with history, which will repeat itself later this year.
Star Wars and Marvel create Disney + history
At the Star Wars Celebration, Lucasfilm revealed Andor premieres its first two episodes at Disney + on August 31, just two weeks later Hun-Hulks debuts on August 17, making August 2022 the first month ever to debut both a Marvel and Star Wars series on Disney +.
Considering that Hun-Hulk running in nine sections while Andor running for 12, over 11 weeks due to the premiere of two episodes, the two will overlap for seven weeks. This period of overlap may prove to be a little shorter if the legal comedy debuts with two episodes like WandaVision did, which is the only other live-action MCU Disney + series with over six episodes.
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Before then, Ms. Marvel and Obi-Wan Kenobi will offer less than five weeks of overlap with the first three parts of the Marvel series debuting alongside the back half of the Star Wars epic.
Disney + is making big plans for 2022
Disney + always had an expansive board set up for this year across Marvel, Star Wars and more. MCU has four series this year, incl Knights of the Moon, Ms. Marvel, Hun-Hulkand more What if…? Season 2; Star Wars will premiere at least five series by the end of the year, ie The book about Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobiand Andoras well as the second season of Visions and The bad batch.
The two together make up an unprecedented nine seasons of television from the two universes, with more total episodes than there are weeks per year, making overlap between them inevitable. All in all, this feature is great for Disney + subscribers, as they receive even more content each week, but this can lead to some projects being left in the dust against larger competitors.
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After the first few paragraphs of Ms. Marvel, it should become clear how Marvel and Star Wars overlapping shows will affect performance and interest. Whether the Marvel series performs well statistically on both the service and social media will be an integral part of Disney’s decision to make similar moves in the coming years.
Either way, both June and August look set to be huge months for Disney +, as both Marvel and Star Wars have episodes of series airing in each.