More stars are coming to TBS and TNT. Media giant Turner Broadcasting has acquired the cable rights to 11 Star Wars movies, including Star Wars: The Force Awakens and four films set to be released in the future.
Starting Tuesday, six of the seven Star Wars films will begin airing on TNT and TBS with The Force Awakens arriving in early 2018 and four unreleased films arriving later. The upcoming stand-alone film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will arrive on Turner channels in 2019, three years after its release on December 16. The sequels to The Force Awakens — Episode VIII and Episode IX — are slated to hit theaters in 2017 and 2019, respectively, with a stand-alone film centered on a young Han Solo releasing in 2018. No word yet on when those three future movies will arrive on Turner.
The first six Star Wars films will air on six consecutive nights on TNT beginning Tuesday. A two-day marathon of those films will also be held on TNT on September 24-25 with another one in December leading to the opening of Rogue One. In case you miss any of it, Turner will have all of the current and future films on video-on-demand and its streaming platform when they arrive on cable.
Ted Turner may have dolled out estimates pegging it around $250 million for the Star Wars franchise, but he is late to the party. Earlier this year, Netflix struck a deal with Disney and Lucasfilm to be the exclusive streaming destination for upcoming films, including this year’s Rogue One, after the film’s physical and digital release. Starz also beat Turner to the lightsaber by becoming the first cable network to air The Force Awakens on September 10 with the deal extending until February 2018.
With a live-action Star Wars TV series being discussed, the galaxy far, far away will find a home on your TV.
Here is a complete list of all of the airings of the first six Star Wars films on TNT:
Tuesday, September 20
8 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace
11 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace
Wednesday, September 21
8 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones
11:05 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones
Thursday, September 22
8 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith
11:05 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith
Friday, September 23
8 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope
10:45 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope
Saturday, September 24
10:45 a.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace
1:45 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones
4:55 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith
8 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back
10:45 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back
Sunday, September 25
5:15 a.m. (ET/PT) — Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace
8:15 a.m. (ET/PT) — Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones
11:20 a.m. (ET/PT) — Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith
2:25 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope
5:10 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back
8 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi
11 p.m. (ET/PT) – Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi
