‘Rise of Skywalker’ coming to Disney+ just in time for May the Fourth

May the Fourth be with you, indeed.

Disney is packing its streaming service with Star Wars content to celebrate Star Wars Day, which occurs on May 4.

The studio’s final installment in the the Skywalker Saga film series, “The Rise of Skywalker” will begin streaming two months early on Disney+, arriving on the beloved fan holiday.

Initially, Disney had intended to adhere to a seven-month window between a film being in theaters and when it arrives on its streaming service, but the coronavrius pandemic has changed that mentality.

“Frozen II” and “Onward” both went to Disney+ early in the wake of the global outbreak.

The company has also opted to release “Artemis Fowl” straight to Disney+, instead of waiting to debut the title in theaters. Other films like “Mulan,” “Black Widow” and “Jungle Cruise,” which were expected to make big money at the box office, have been pushed to new release dates.

Also arriving on May 4 is the final episode of “The Clones Wars,” an animated anthology series that follows Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka Tano as they fight in the Clone Wars alongside the Jedi Order and clone troopers under the Republic’s command.

Disney will also launch the first episode of its eight-part docuseries about the making of the first Star Wars live-action TV show “The Mandalorian” on Star Wars Day.

“Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian” will feature executive producer Jon Favreau hosting roundtables with cast and crew from the series as well as interviews and never-before-seen footage.

Disney’s strategy for releasing new television shows has been to dole them out in weekly installments, like traditional TV. Shows that have already aired are available to be binged.

For a documentary show like “Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian” it will take eight weeks to watch the whole series, if you want to screen it as soon as it is available. The first episode will be available on Monday, May 4, but all other episodes will arrive on Fridays.

That is two months that a subscriber will have to pay in order to see all the episodes, compared with the one-month fee a subscriber would have to pay if they only wanted to watch one season of a documentary series like “Tiger King” on Netflix.

Of course, there are subscribers who pay for a full year in advance, but for those who decide on a month-to-month basis what services they will sign up for, it could be the difference between staying with a service one more month or dropping it until another series entices them to pay again.

Earlier this month, Disney announced that its streaming service had more than 50 million subscribers. That’s almost twice as many as Disney reported on Feb. 4, when it said in its earnings that Disney+ reached 26.5 million subscribers during the quarter.