No matter how young or old you are, we’ve all heard of Star Wars – you must know who Baby Yoda is at least. If you’re deciding to get involved with the franchise for the first time, and want to watch the lot, you may be a little overwhelmed. Here are a few different ways to approach it, depending on your preference.
- Watch the films in release order
Imagine the year is 1977, and you’ve just seen an intriguing poster for a sci-fi movie called Star Wars. Fast forward 45 years, and you’re still a fan of what has now expanded into an epic universe.
To get this authentic experience, and watch the films like a day one fan, you’d need to watch them in the order they were released. This may be a little confusing for a newbie, as the films will jump back and forth in time, but it’s a good idea to be introduced to Luke and the gang first of all to set the scene. After all, if OG fans could piece the story together back in the day, then so can you. Here is the order the films were initially released in:
Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)
Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)
Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
- Watch the films in chronological order
If you like seeing a story from beginning to end, you’ll want to disregard the initial release order of the films, and go in chronological order instead. This approach is ideal for people with a rough background knowledge of Star Wars, so that you actually understand the significance of the things you see, and aren’t wondering why you’re watching a boy called Anakin grow up for three films when you thought these movies were about Luke Skywalker. If you understand that reference, you’ll probably want to watch the films in this order:
Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)
Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)
Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)
Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
- Just show me the best ones
I get it – we don’t all have time to sit down and watch 11 films in one go. Perhaps you just want a taste of the Star Wars saga, or maybe it’s an old acquaintance you’d like to be briefly reunited with. Feel free to watch one or two of the highest rated films, and be either taught or reminded of what Star Wars at its peak feels like. Here are the top three to choose from:
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The second film of the original trilogy, this one is the highest ranked, with a score of 94% from critics and 97% from audiences. It has moments of darkness, action, and emotion – the three best qualities that can be found in a Star Wars movie.
Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
The first film from the modern trilogy, this is the one that critics rank second place, with a score of 93%. Audiences aren’t quite so keen, giving the film an 85% score, but given how picky people are when it comes to Star Wars, this still no doubt means it’s a decent film. This one centres around new characters Rey and Finn, taking on villain Kylo Ren with a little help from some familiar faces from the past.
Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
The film that started it all, it’s only right that you at least consider watching this one. I’m sure I don’t need to explain to you that it follows the meeting of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and a whole host of creatures from outer space. Understandably, critics and audiences both love this one, giving it scores of 92% and 96% respectively.
Star Wars is a great film franchise. But so is James Bond. Read more about that here.
