Why Loki Is Releasing On Wednesdays, Not Fridays

Loki is not only changing the Marvel Cinematic Universe in his new TV show but also how Disney+ has been releasing episodes of its original shows, as new episodes of Loki will drop on Wednesdays instead of Fridays – but why? The MCU’s highly-anticipated Phase 4 has finally begun now that the Infinity Saga came to an end, and what makes this new wave of content so exciting is that it won’t just focus on the movies but also on TV shows set to stream on Disney+. These will directly impact the movies, unlike Netflix’s Marvel TV shows, further expanding this connected universe.

Starting the MCU’s Phase 4 was WandaVision, followed by The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and before fans can finally watch Black Widow in July, they will reunite with the God of Mischief himself on his very own TV show. Simply titled Loki, the series has Tom Hiddleston reprising his role as the title character, who viewers saw die at the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War. Loki will follow the God of Mischief after he stole the Tesseract in 2012 as a result of the time heist in Avengers: Endgame, and will see him being brought to the mysterious Time Variance Authority (TVA), an organization that monitors the timeline. The TVA will seize Loki’s talents and will send him on different missions to fix the timeline, and in the process, Loki will avoid being deleted and will go on different adventures.

Loki, just like WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (and pretty much any other Disney+ original TV show), will drop one episode per week, but the format will be slightly different this time. The previous two Marvel TV shows released their new episodes on Fridays, but Marvel announced (with the help of Tom Hiddleston) that Loki will drop new episodes on Wednesdays rather than on Fridays, starting on June 9. Although it’s not a radical nor strange move, it did take viewers by surprise as Disney+ tends to release episodes of its original series on Fridays, and not just from Marvel’s realm, but when taking a deeper look at the circumstances around Loki and more, moving to Wednesdays was the best decision.

Tom Hiddleston's Loki, dressed in a green suit, from his TV spinoff's teaser

Disney+ has a variety of original content and not just from Marvel, and they all release new episodes on Fridays. By the time Loki debuts, the platform will already have Star Wars: The Bad Batch and other original shows dropping episodes on Fridays, so the best way to avoid clashing with all of those and give Loki the spotlight it deserves is to move to Wednesdays. Another strong reason for this change is the release of Black Widow, which will be out on July 9 on both theaters and Disney+ (through Premier Access), and keeping Loki on Fridays would represent a problem as the studio would risk an oversaturation of Marvel content or the series would have to skip that day, which isn’t ideal either. Others, such as Scott Mendelson on Twitter, have pointed out that this subtle change would also help Loki with Nielsen ratings by giving it a chance of getting more “minutes watched” in a week.

Moving Loki to Wednesdays instead of releasing the episodes on Fridays is not a bad decision nor one that should affect viewers’ experience (except for the fact that they will have to make some changes to their calendars), and it will allow fans to get the most of this new show as well as Black Widow and other original series that release on Fridays, while the platform avoids saturation of content.

Next: Phase 4 Is Finally Fixing Loki's Insulting MCU Power Problem