Ewan McGregor’s return as the Jedi Master on the small screen was always expected to do well, but no one could have predicted just many people would tune in to watch a familiar face again. According to the official Star Wars Twitter account, Obi-Wan Kenobi has set a new record for hours streamed in an opening weekend for Disney Plus. Unfortunately, Disney did not release numbers to back up its claim, but the show is now bigger than Marvel’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, WandaVision, and the Season 2 premiere of The Mandalorian.
— Star Wars (@starwars) May 31, 2022 The first two episodes of the record-breaking Star Wars spin-off arrived on Friday, May 27 following a slight delay. Episode 3 will drop on Wednesday, June 1, with the rest releasing every week on Wednesday for the entirety of June. If Obi-Wan Kenobi can maintain its numbers, which we have no doubt that it will, the show could set a new high bar. Obi-Wan Kenobi wasn’t the only show that came out over the weekend and set a record. Over on the Netflix side of things, the penultimate season of Stranger Things also enjoyed a similarly big outing. The show’s official Twitter account reports that the new installment saw 286.79 million hours logged over the weekend and went #1 in 83 countries. To put that into context, you can watch Netflix in 190 countries. This meant that the first part of the fourth season of Stranger Things topped the charts in nearly half of all territories where Netflix is available and more than a third of all countries around the globe. Furthermore, Paramount’s Top Gun: Maverick also set a new Memorial Day opening record, proving that big theatrical releases and streaming premieres can succeed together. In other Star Wars news, the gritty Star Wars prequel, Andor, finally has a release date. After years of anticipation, Andor will be hitting Disney+ on August 31 with a second season that will tie the show to the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story already confirmed. Also, Liam Neeson is back as Qui-Gon Jinn in the upcoming Star Wars animated series, Tales of the Jedi.
