Why Disney Plus really moved Loki to Wednesdays

While both WandaVision and Falcon and the Winter Soldier found huge success with their Friday release schedule, the next Disney Plus MCU series, Loki, will air on Wednesdays.

Since the inception of Disney Plus, new episodes of all their shows predominantly have released on Fridays. There have been a few exceptions; Disney made the first episode of their premiere shows available upon the streaming service’s launch on Tuesday, November 12, 2019 – The Mandalorian dropped its pilot on that date. And just this past week, the Star Wars branch introduced their latest animated series, The Bad Batch, on Star Wars day, Tuesday, May 4th.

This year, the Marvel Cinematic Universe started premiering their Disney Plus shows. WandaVision unveiled its first two chapters on Friday, January 15th and released new episodes every Friday. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier also teamed up weekly on Fridays, with its six-episode run beginning on March 19th.

Now the Tom Hiddleston vehicle will be the third Disney Plus series, but it is shaking up the schedule (Loki is an infamous rule-breaker after all), with the first episode hitting our TV screens on Wednesday, June 9th and the remaining five chapters coming out on subsequent Wednesdays.

Why Loki is releasing on Wednesdays instead of Fridays

So if Fridays have worked well so far, not just with the MCU shows but for all Disney Plus series, why change things now? The shift to Wednesdays for Loki is clearly a part of Disney’s “sneaky” plan to spread out its content. Since everything else on Disney Plus enters the streaming service on Fridays, now subscribers can enjoy Loki on Wednesdays and still catch up on other new material later that week. Since many MCU enthusiasts are likely also Star Wars fans, viewers will not have to choose between Loki and The Bad Batch on Friday nights.

And it isn’t just original TV series that air on Fridays, Disney Plus regularly adds other content on Fridays too, including older shows and movies that are being slowly integrated into the streaming services ever-growing repository among their five segments; Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic. Separating Loki, by specifically allowing it to have its own release day, highlights its importance for the streaming service.

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Perhaps the biggest reason for putting Loki out on Wednesdays is another MCU property whose release is also imminent, Black Widow. The first MCU film in over two years will come out on Friday, July 9th. And since Disney is skeptical about how the theatrical box office will operate while the pandemic is still ongoing, Black Widow will simultaneously hit theaters and the streaming service, for an additional fee. With Black Widow available on Disney Plus on July 9th, that means that if Loki would have stuck to the typical release schedule, the penultimate chapter of the series would have to compete with a big-budget movie from the same shared universe.

MCU fans now have some breathing room in July; we can observe the God of Mischief’s fifth episode on Wednesday, July 7th and can watch Black Widow, either in theaters or via Disney Plus, two days later on July 9th. Then the Loki finale will air on the streaming service the following Wednesday, July 14th. This certainly is an exciting year for the Marvel Cinematic Universe after going the entirety of 2020 without new content.

Next. Falcon and Winter Soldier MCU connections. dark

Are you happy that an episode of Loki and the Black Widow solo film will not be releasing on the same day? Or would you have just watched them both anyway on July 9th? Let us know in the comments below!

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Why Disney Plus’ Loki will release on Wednesdays instead of Fridays

By Josh Baggins | May 7, 2021

Why Loki is releasing on Wednesdays instead of Fridays