What order to watch Star Wars
Star Wars is the franchise that turned watch order into an argument: the films were made out of sequence, and the one reveal the original trilogy is built around only works if you meet it cold. Add four decades of television written to fill the gaps between films, and the question stops being trivial.
If you are watching it for the first time
Release order, with one edit: the prequels come after the original trilogy, as prequels, rather than woven into it. Machete order is right that The Empire Strikes Back's reveal is the whole reason chronological order fails a newcomer, and wrong to interleave — Return of the Jedi should land while you still know only what the originals have told you.
Start here: the original three
- A New Hope (1977) — Self-contained, explains its own galaxy from scratch, and assumes you know nothing — which is still the correct assumption. [Age of Rebellion]
- The Empire Strikes Back (1980) — Everything a chronological order gives away is in this film, and it only lands once. [Age of Rebellion]
- Return of the Jedi (1983) — Closes the only complete story the franchise has finished telling, and it should close with the prequels still unseen. [Age of Rebellion]
The prequels — and skip The Phantom Menace
- Attack of the Clones (2002) — Start the prequels here: The Phantom Menace introduces nothing the later films don't reintroduce, and this is where Anakin, Padmé and the clone army enter the story properly. [Fall of the Jedi]
- Revenge of the Sith (2005) — The only prequel that changes how the original trilogy reads afterwards, and it needs the film before it to work. [Fall of the Jedi]
The road back into A New Hope
- Andor (2022) — No Jedi, no Force, no returning heroes — the one series that works as television first, and it feeds directly into the film below. [Age of Rebellion]
- Rogue One (2016) — Ends on the shot A New Hope opens with, which is why it plays better after that film than before it. [Age of Rebellion]
Where the TV shows earn their place
- The Clone Wars (2008) — Follow a recommended-arc list rather than episode one — the early seasons are made for children and the final three are not. [Fall of the Jedi]
- The Mandalorian (2019) — The only post-Return of the Jedi story that assumes nothing; it also sets up three more shows, which is the reason to stop here. [The New Republic]
The sequels, if you're still going
- The Force Awakens (2015) — A deliberate restaging of A New Hope, which is exactly why it belongs after the originals rather than anywhere near them. [Rise of the First Order & the New Jedi Order]
- The Last Jedi (2017) — The only sequel that argues with the other two, and the reason the third one behaves the way it does. [Rise of the First Order & the New Jedi Order]
- The Rise of Skywalker (2019) — Watch it to close the run; nothing else on any of these lists depends on it. [Rise of the First Order & the New Jedi Order]
Release order
The order the films actually arrived in, and the only order where every reveal reaches you as written. Twelve theatrical features, no television.
- A New Hope (1977) — Released with no episode number and no context — everything that later calls it Episode IV was invented after it succeeded. [Age of Rebellion]
- The Empire Strikes Back (1980) — The reveal this entire ordering argument exists to protect. [Age of Rebellion]
- Return of the Jedi (1983) [Age of Rebellion]
- The Phantom Menace (1999) — Sixteen years later, and the first Star Wars film made knowing the ending it has to arrive at. [Fall of the Jedi]
- Attack of the Clones (2002) [Fall of the Jedi]
- Revenge of the Sith (2005) — Written to hand off directly to the 1977 film, which is the point release order and story order briefly agree. [Fall of the Jedi]
- The Clone Wars (film) (2008) — The only animated feature in the run, and it exists because a television pilot was pushed into cinemas. [Fall of the Jedi]
- The Force Awakens (2015) — Restarts the numbered run after a ten-year gap and rebuilds A New Hope's shape to do it. [Rise of the First Order & the New Jedi Order]
- Rogue One (2016) — The first film with no episode number, and the moment Star Wars stopped meaning one story per trilogy. [Age of Rebellion]
- The Last Jedi (2017) [Rise of the First Order & the New Jedi Order]
- Solo (2018) — Its box office ended the standalone-film plan, which is why the years after it are television instead. [Reign of the Empire]
- The Rise of Skywalker (2019) — Closes the numbered run, and spends much of its length reversing the film before it. [Rise of the First Order & the New Jedi Order]
Chronological order
In-story order, films plus the series that carry real weight, running from 132 BBY to 35 ABY. It reads well on a second pass and wrecks two reveals on a first.
- The Acolyte (2024) — Set 132 BBY — The earliest point on the map by a century, and nothing else here depends on it. [The High Republic]
- Tales of the Jedi (2022) — Set 60–19 BBY [Fall of the Jedi]
- The Phantom Menace (1999) — Set 32 BBY [Fall of the Jedi]
- Attack of the Clones (2002) — Set 22 BBY [Fall of the Jedi]
- Clone Wars (2003 micro-series) (2003) — Set 22–19 BBY — Cut from canon in 2014, but still built to run from the end of Attack of the Clones to the opening minutes of Revenge of the Sith. [Legends (the Expanded Universe)]
- The Clone Wars (film) (2008) — Set 22 BBY — Sold as a film, made as the series pilot, and it sits inside its own show's opening stretch. [Fall of the Jedi]
- The Clone Wars (2008) — Set 22–19 BBY — Carries characters Revenge of the Sith quietly assumes you know — Ahsoka never appears in a film. [Fall of the Jedi]
- Revenge of the Sith (2005) — Set 19 BBY — The hinge of the whole map: everything before it is a republic, everything after is an empire. [Fall of the Jedi]
- The Bad Batch (2021) — Set 19–18 BBY [Reign of the Empire]
- Tales of the Underworld (2025) — Set 19–18 BBY [Reign of the Empire]
- Tales of the Empire (2024) — Set 20–2 BBY [Reign of the Empire]
- Solo (2018) — Set 10 BBY [Reign of the Empire]
- Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) — Set 9 BBY [Reign of the Empire]
- Andor (2022) — Set 5–0 BBY — Ends days before Rogue One starts, and the handoff is exact rather than thematic. [Age of Rebellion]
- Rebels (2014) — Set 5–1 BBY — Runs alongside Andor rather than after it, and its closing scenes jump past Return of the Jedi. [Age of Rebellion]
- Rogue One (2016) — Set 0 BBY — Ends with no gap at all before A New Hope's opening shot. [Age of Rebellion]
- A New Hope (1977) — Set 0 BBY [Age of Rebellion]
- The Empire Strikes Back (1980) — Set 3 ABY [Age of Rebellion]
- Return of the Jedi (1983) — Set 4 ABY [Age of Rebellion]
- The Mandalorian (2019) — Set 9 ABY — Opens the five-year window that four other shows then share, so everything below it is effectively simultaneous. [The New Republic]
- The Book of Boba Fett (2021) — Set 9 ABY [The New Republic]
- Ahsoka (2023) — Set 9 ABY [The New Republic]
- Skeleton Crew (2024) — Set 9 ABY [The New Republic]
- Resistance (2018) — Set 34–35 ABY — Straddles the sequel films rather than preceding them — its first season runs into The Force Awakens, its second past The Last Jedi. [Rise of the First Order & the New Jedi Order]
- The Force Awakens (2015) — Set 34 ABY [Rise of the First Order & the New Jedi Order]
- The Last Jedi (2017) — Set 34 ABY [Rise of the First Order & the New Jedi Order]
- The Rise of Skywalker (2019) — Set 35 ABY [Rise of the First Order & the New Jedi Order]
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