Disney is missing a huge opportunity to make 'The Mandalorian' a major event by releasing it when many people are asleep

• "The Mandalorian" returns to Disney Plus Friday.
• New episodes launch weekly on the streaming service at 3 a.m. ET.
• Disney is missing an opportunity to make season two of "The Mandalorian" event TV by releasing it while most of the US is sleeping.
• As Disney restructures its company to focus on streaming, the company should prioritize the release time of its most popular original show, not dump it at 3 a.m. ET.

"The Mandalorian" returns to Disney Plus for its second season Friday and the return of Baby Yoda (aka the Child) is definitely mandatory viewing for "Star Wars" fans the moment it's available to stream.

When so many shows and films have been delayed or affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the return of Disney's hit "Star Wars" series following Mando's adventure to reunite the memeable 50-year-old creature with his kind feels like one of the few bright spots of 2020.

There's just one thing: Families and fans aren't likely going to be gathering around to watch it at the same time every week, tweeting their delight or creating more memes to send to other fans.

New episodes drop weekly on the streaming service on Fridays at 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT in the US. (In the UK, episodes will be released at 7 a.m. GMT.)

Other than die-hard "Star Wars" fans and journalists who need to cover the show live — critics received an email last week saying no screeners would be made available in advance — who is setting their alarm for 3 a.m. ET every Friday to watch eight episodes and bend to Disney's will?

Disney Plus is missing a huge opportunity to make season two of "The Mandalorian" a true TV-watching event by releasing its most popular original series while most of the US is presumably asleep.

Sure, GIFs and screenshots of the little green guy will likely flood your social feeds every Friday for the next eight weeks, but it feels like the show could have been rolled out in a smarter fashion to capitalize on many families who are adjusting to "new normals" and may be working from home.

Releasing 'The Mandalorian' at midnight PT is all business.

The idea of dropping content at 12 a.m. PT goes back to how Netflix rolled out new series on Fridays for audiences to binge over the weekends.

According to senior software engineer at Netflix, James Schek, new shows and movies are rolled out over night because of start and end dates for content contracts.

In other words, if a contract for "The Mandalorian" season two starts on October 30 with Disney Plus, why would the company wait 12 or more hours for a more prime viewing hour when they're legally allowed to share it with the world at midnight?

In a year where Disney has already sacrificed two of its potentially massive theatrical releases ("Mulan," "Soul") to Disney Plus, pushed numerous big films ("Black Widow," "Eternals") to 2021, and has had to layoff thousands of theme park employees, it's probably better from a business perspective for the company to push out "The Mandalorian" right at the start of October 30.

Even so, Disney has the opportunity to make 'The Mandalorian' appointment TV in a year where so many big, original movies have been sidelined.

Historically, Friday nights are considered a terrible death slot for TV as people are going out to the movies, heading out on dates, and gathering with friends. But more people may be inclined to stay indoors right now as movie theaters continue to be closed or open at low capacity over the country and coronavirus cases have been trending upwards.

Instead of people watching episodes across multiple days, imagine everyone tuning in at 8 or 9 p.m. on a Friday night, or any weeknight really.

Disney Plus has positioned itself as providing family-friendly content. Why not use that to encourage families or friends to watch its most popular original series together at the same time?

With Disney restructuring its company to focus on streaming, the company has the unique opportunity to try and make "The Mandalorian" the first mandatory viewing event since the final season of "Game of Thrones."

If not Friday, Disney has the opportunity to go all out at the start of the week. Disney recently launched "Mando Mondays" to debut new products based on the show each week from October 26 through December 21. Perhaps this conflicts with "Monday Night Football," which airs on Disney-owned ESPN, but "Star Wars" seems like pretty good counterprogramming to sports.

Disney could even bring back a virtual version of its popular "The Wonderful World of Disney" on the Disney Plus homepage. For anyone who tunes in during the first broadcast, they can be rewarded with an episode director, executive producer, or star introducing the episode.

Regardless, Disney has the chance to dramatically evolve how we digest streaming content away from Netflix's strategy of dropping all episodes of a season on one day to feed the binge craze.

Most people likely aren't going to watch "The Mandalorian" until hours after release.

As a result of its current release timing, fans will watch in clusters.

Die-hard fans (and critics trying to file a fast review) will likely watch right when it's released, others will watch when they awake in the morning, and the bulk of people perhaps won't get to it until Friday evening or the weekend when they're done with work.

There's no reason during a pandemic to be releasing content as "business as usual" though. And no one needs their sleep schedule even more out of wack than it likely already may be because of the pandemic.

Now is the time to innovate.

There is one upside to releasing "Mandolorian" episodes at an odd hour. Perhaps Disney prefers "The Mandalorian" potentially trending on social media sites at various times throughout Friday and the weekend thus giving the show the ability to have a wide-range of impact.

And although this may be the method to their madness, it's just not a very satisfying one.