You may have heard by now that The Mandalorian, the first live-action television in the Star Wars universe, is not following the traditional binge-watch release schedule popularized by Netflix. Instead, episodes will be released one at a time, following a set schedule. But what is that schedule?

Season 1 Schedule

Season 1 of The Mandalorian will mostly be released on Fridays, with a few notable exceptions. The first is the obvious one, the premier. As the show is launching day and date with Disney+, the first episode will be available on Tuesday, November 12th. From there the releases settle in on Fridays, except for the penultimate episode of the season, which releases on Wednesday, December 18th.

Avoiding The Rise of Skywalker

Why does Season 1, Episode 7 release on the 18th instead of the 20th? The answer should be obvious at this point – the final Skywalker Saga film releases on the 20th, with early showings starting at 6 pm on the 19th. Lucasfilm, rightfully so, wants EVERYONE focused on the film. With this schedule, you won’t have to worry about deciding what to do on the 20th.

Possible Tie-In?

One possible additional reason for the slightly earlier debut is that events that happen in Season 1, Episode 7, will in some way reference or affect the events of the upcoming film. It’s hard to speculate because we know so little about the show’s or the film’s plots, but it would certainly make sense that something important enough happens in the episode that the most ardent fans will want to have seen it before seeing The Rise of Skywalker. A lot of the trailers and other released material leading into the film have shown that it is as much a conclusion to the initial Star Wars saga as it is a celebration of all the previous canon material, including the television shows. Episode 7 could be the connection point for The Mandalorian.

Full Schedule

Here’s the full schedule:

Episode 1 – Tuesday, November 12th
Episode 2 – Friday, November 15th
Episode 3 – Friday, November 22nd
Episode 4 – Friday, November 29th
Episode 5 – Friday, December 6th
Episode 6 – Friday, December 13th
Episode 7 – Wednesday, December 18th
Episode 8, Friday, December 27th

What time does it air?

The bigger question is WHEN does each episode go live? Netflix typically waited until 3 am Eastern, 12 am Pacific to launch their shows on release day. Disney+ appears to be following a different tactic, at least for day one. The countdown clock on the Disney+ website indicates that the service goes live at 6 am Eastern on the 12th. The countdown on StarWars.com shows The Mandalorian starting at 9 am Eastern. Whether or not that becomes the standard time won’t be known until the 15th.

The Mandalorian’s official Twitter account has set up a notification service to remind people when each episode becomes available. We’ve got all the details on the new Twitter-based notification service here.

Sign Up for Disney+

Have you signed up for Disney+ yet? If not, you still have time. Disney is offering a free 7-day trial, with the option to then pay either $6.99 per month or $69.99 for the year. The year option saves you $13.98. Verizon is also offering Disney+ to its customers for free for the first year.

We’ll have more coverage of The Mandalorian all week long, leading up to the premiere on Tuesday, November 12th!

Updates:

11/7/2019 – Additional information on the countdown clock from StarWars.com was added under the heading, “What Time Does It Air?”