Star Wars Day: TBS to air first six movies on May 4th
May the Fourth be with you. Turner’s TBS will air the first six Star Wars movies on Thursday, May 4, a date known around the world as Star Wars Day.
The six Lucasfilm classics will run in series order, back-to-back, with limited commercial interruptions over 16-plus hours.
The marathon kicks off at 6:40 AM (ET/PT) with Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace (1999) and closes with an 8:15 PM telecast of 1983’s Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi.
Check out the promo clip below.
The marathon follows a mega domestic licensing deal between Turner, the Walt Disney Studios and 20th Century Fox in September.
The agreement gives TBS and TNT the exclusive basic cable and companion ad-supported on-demand rights to the original six films, as well as the network premiere windows for the recent blockbusters Star Wars: The Force Awakens and stand-alone spinoff Rogue One: A Star Wars Story; the upcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which hits theaters December 15; and the upcoming Star Wars films.
TBS plans to make its Star Wars Day marathon an annual television tradition similar to the network’s 24-hour A Christmas Story, Friends for Thanksgiving and Festivus for the Rest of Us marathons.
Here is the full May 4 schedule (times ET/PT):
6:40 a.m. – Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
9:25 a.m. – Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
12:20 p.m. – Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
3:10 p.m. – Star Wars: A New Hope
5:40 p.m. – Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
8:15 p.m. – Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
