When is the right time to tweet 'The Mandalorian' spoilers?
Disney dropped the first episode of season 2 of The Mandalorian early Friday morning and spoilers were quickly all over social media. This isn’t a surprise, given that any information spreads like wildfire in our digital climate, but it is, technically speaking, a total jerk move.
The first Mandalorian episode dropped at 3am EST Friday morning, a pattern which will continue for the rest of the season. By early Friday morning, Twitter especially was already filled with details about guest stars, plot points, and Baby Yoda gifs. Considering that the majority of people haven’t had a reasonable chance to watch the show, and that social media spoilers are unavoidable, this is not a cool thing for Mandalorian stans to be doing!
This begs the question then, when is the right time to tweet Mandalorian spoilers?
The answer is, it depends. For huge plot points, it’s your duty to try to keep that under wraps for as long as reasonably you can, because people watch shows at different rates and no one wants to be *that guy.* A good rule of thumb is asking, have most people had a chance to watch this yet? In the case of The Mandalorian, that means waiting until at least late Friday night or Saturday evening.
With The Mandalorian, viewers began posting show tidbits to social media before the sun was even up. Stans aren’t even giving the general public a chance to wake up before flooding Twitter with their screenshots, all in a competition to be the first to make a joke or get the RTs or whatever. Generally speaking, it’s always a good idea to wait until at least most people have had their morning coffee before ruining something they’ve been waiting a long time to see.
I get that the internet, especially Twitter, moves at lightening speed and Friday’s meme is Saturday morning’s birdcage lining, but that’s not how much of the real world operates. Most people aren’t watching The Mandalorian until at least Friday evening, maybe even Saturday night, so those of you firing off your Baby Yoda memes prematurely are just ruining your engagement.
Media sites know this all too well, and least are mindful of not showing spoilers in their images and headlines. Mandalorian fans apparently don’t care. In which case, now is a good time to hit the mute and unfollow buttons.