Disney Plus has been all-in on Star Wars Day from the very beginning. There were shows on television before the streamer, but they often failed to acknowledge May 4 as a dedicated annual event. The contrast may be apparent to animated enthusiasts who watched The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, and/or Stars Wars Resistance live. During Star Wars' Cartoon Network era, there was a much more traditional television schedule, where seasons of The Clone Wars started in the Fall and lasted until Spring, which led to all of those early years completing before May.
Star Wars Rebels continued this trend in the mid-2010s, airing from Fall to Spring for four seasons on Disney XD. Following the close of that animated show, Star Wars Resistance had a similar schedule, as the last series to emerge ahead of the Disney Plus launch in late 2019. It ran for two years on cable television before transitioning over to the streaming division.
When Disney Plus became the home of all things Star Wars, this was just in time for the final season of The Clone Wars. It began on February 21, 2020, which meant that a consistent Friday timetable for its 12 chapters would end the series on Friday May 8, 2020. But after its penultimate episode on Friday May 1, Disney Plus cleverly celebrated The Clone Wars grand finale on Star Wars Day – Monday May 4, 2020.
The backdoor pilot for Star Wars: The Bad Batch was included in that final season of Clone Wars, and that animated show had its true premiere on - you guessed it! - Star Wars Day. The first episode dropped exactly one year after Clone Wars wrapped, which was May 4, 2021. It was an auspicious jumping off point for a perfectly paced three-season run.
The following year, the Obi-Wan Kenobi limited series released in May 2022, although it wasn’t quite ready by May 4, so instead Disney dropped the trailer for the show on that date. The streamer still made sure to put out original programming on Star Wars Day, with the documentary special, Disney Gallery: The Book of Boba Fett, being added to Disney Plus on May 4, 2022, featuring a behind the scenes look at the spin-off show that aired earlier that year.
Next, Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 landed on the platform on May 4, 2023. That unique anime-style collection of shorts ranges from lighthearted stories to more abstract or mature narratives. So with Young Jedi Adventures geared strictly toward a younger audience, the streaming service felt comfortable debuting that cartoon on Star Ways Day as well, adding to the franchise festivities.
Tales of the Empire released all six parts on May 4, 2024. The Lucasfilm Animation tales split between one arc about Morgan Elsbeth and another focused on Barriss Offee. Then, Tales of the Underworld jumped on the Star Wars Day bandwagon exactly one year later with the entirety of its two-pronged narrative dropping on May 4, 2025. Those tales featured Assajj Ventress and Cad Bane. Not to interfere with Andor’s climactic ending, which revealed new sections on Tuesdays around this time, yet the subscription service included Star Wars Day by having its animated anthology series release on Sunday May 4.
This year, Disney Plus will again honor Star Wars Day with new content. Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord has been strategically scheduled with its two-parts a week for five straight weeks to finish precisely on May 4 - unlike The Clone Wars conclusion, which changed the day of the week it normally released its episodes to purposefully culminate on Star Wars Day.
Including a Mandalorian from The Clone Wars series and an Inquisitor from Ahsoka’s titular show, Maul – Shadow Lord encompasses pieces from various Star Wars periods. But none of that would matter without the main attraction, Maul, again delivering jaw-dropping lightsaber mastery on top of his mischievous misdeeds.
With the Season 1 finale landing on Star Wars Day, fans have cause for celebration. And with the news of the show getting renewed for a second season, perhaps more Maul – Shadow Lord will also be scheduled for Star Wars Day in 2027.
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