Sky Deutschland Launches Star Wars Channel

German sci-fi fans in need of a stiff midichlorian fix will get that and then some come December, when satellite giant Sky Deutschland turns over its Sky Hits channel into Star Wars HD channel for two weeks, dedicated to airing all six movies in the canon.

The movies will be shown in their narrative order – starting with 1999’s Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace and ending with the 1983 Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. In addition to the films, the channel will air documentaries and featurettes about the iconic science fiction franchise. The launch comes about a year before The Walt Disney Co., which purchased Star Wars creator Lucasfilm in 2012, is slated to release the next film in the franchise – Star Wars: Episode VII, which will bring back actors from the original trilogy including Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher.

“We are well aware that December 18th 2015 is much too long for fans to wait until the release of Star Wars: Episode VII. Many thanks to our outstanding partners Disney and Lucasfilm for the opportunity to exclusively offer Sky Star Wars HD,” said Sky Deutschland executive vice president of programming Gary Davey in a statement. “For someone who has been a Star Wars fan since the first film 37 years ago, this project is a dream come true. Anakin, Luke, Leia, Han – in December the entire Star Wars family is coming to one channel, around the clock. This is the sensation of the TV winter in Germany and Austria.”