About a month ahead of Loki‘s premiere, Disney+ made the surprise move of bumping up the show’s release date and announcing via Tom Hiddleston that the series would drop new episodes on Wednesday instead of Friday, which had been the streaming service’s previous release strategy for The Mandalorian, WandaVision, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. When the news first hit, the Hiddelston announcement made it seem like the Loki release change was a play on the show’s timeline-bending plot, and maybe something reserved just for that show. Not so much.
According to Variety, Disney+ has officially announced that Wednesdays are now the new Fridays for all of its original series:
According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, the decision will apply to all scripted, unscripted, and animated series going forward. Disney Plus original movies will continue to be released on Fridays.
The move will officially take effect for all other Disney Plus shows aside from “Loki” beginning in July. As such, the premiere dates of multiple shows — including “Monsters at Work” and “Turner and Hooch” — have now shifted…
After just two weeks of releasing Loki episodes on Wednesday, Disney+ apparently likes what it’s seeing, which jibes with reports that the Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson time-cop buddy show is the biggest Marvel series on the streaming service yet. However, there are no indications that Disney+ plans to alter its practice of streaming new episodes at 3 A.M. EST, which has been a constant source of frustration for audiences and critics who either have to lose sleep to catch the latest episode or completely avoid social media until they have time to watch. Case in point: The big reveal from Loki Episode 2 was already trending on Twitter first thing Wednesday morning.
(Via Variety)