Obi-Wan Kenobi Release Time Brought Forward by 3 Hours

Obi-Wan Kenobi — the new live-action Star Wars limited series, featuring the return of Ewan McGregor's titular Jedi Master and Hayden Christensen's Darth Vader — is now streaming on Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar wherever available. That's earlier than expected, a full three hours in fact. Early Friday in India / late Thursday in the US, Disney+ revealed that Obi-Wan Kenobi would premiere Thursday, May 26 at 9pm PT, which translates to Friday, May 27 at 12am ET / 5am BST / 9:30am IST / 2pm AEST. We're getting the first two episodes of the new Star Wars series — Part 1 is 52 minutes long, while Part II runs 38 minutes — as had been announced earlier.

At 8:25am IST on Friday, Lucasfilm and Disney+ announced — alongside a new poster with McGregor — that Obi-Wan Kenobi would debut early, with tweets. The caption read: “The time for @obiwankenobi has arrived…early. Start streaming the first two episodes TONIGHT at 9PM PT on @disneyplus.” While Disney+ Hotstar didn't bother with a tweet of their own, Gadgets 360 spotted the first two Obi-Wan Kenobi episodes going live on the service around 9:30am IST. On Disney+ Hotstar, as previously announced, the new Star Wars series is available in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam. (Obi-Wan Kenobi is the second Star Wars series to be offered in five languages.)

In addition to Ewan McGregor as Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi who now lives in exile on Tatooine, and Christensen as his former Jedi Padawan Anakin Skywalker turned Sith Lord Darth Vader, the new Star Wars series also stars Joel Edgerton as Tatooine moisture farmer and Anakin's step-brother Owen Lars, Bonnie Piesse as Owen's wife and Luke's step-aunt Beru Whitesun Lars, Moses Ingram as ruthless and ambitious Inquisitor Reva Sevander / the Third Sister, Indira Varma as an Imperial officer, Rupert Friend as the Galactic Empire's Grand Inquisitor, Sung Kang as an Inquisitor named the Fifth Brother, and Kumail Nanjiani as street-level con man Haja. O'Shea Jackson Jr., Simone Kessell, Benny Safdie, Maya Erskine, and Rory Ross have undisclosed roles.

Directed by Deborah Chow (The Mandalorian season 1), Obi-Wan Kenobi is set a decade after the events of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, which ended with the destruction of the Jedi Order and the completion of Anakin Skywalker's turn to the dark side. McGregor and Chow are executive producers on Obi-Wan Kenobi alongside showrunner Joby Harold, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, and Lucasfilm SVP for live-action content Michelle Rejwan. The legendary John Williams is responsible for the Obi-Wan Kenobi theme, with Natalie Holt (Loki) handling composer duties. Chung Chung-hoon is the director of photography on the new Star Wars series.

The first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi are now streaming on Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar. Following the Friday premiere, one new episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi debuts Wednesdays around 12:30pm IST. The Obi-Wan Kenobi series finale is set for June 22.