With all the Star Wars films coming out these days, you could be forgiven for not keeping track of what the chronological order of them is.
Where does the ‘Solo’ film fit in for example?
Does it come before Rogue One?
And that’s a fair question for the casual viewer who hasn’t seen either of those films.
So, here’s the list of every single Star Wars film and Disney Plus show in chronological/narrative order.
This is to say the order they occurred in their time period (a long time ago) and not in the order they were theatrically released.
1. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)
2. Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002)
The one where Anakin Skywalker shares a forbidden romance with Padmé Amidala, while Obi-Wan Kenobi investigates an assassination attempt on the senator which leads to … an attack of Clones.
Fun Fact: When Anakin is slaughtering the Tusken Raider in Attack of the Clones, Qui-Gon Jinn’s voice can be heard in the background yelling “Anakin! Anakin!”.
This is no accident as Qui-Gon Jinn’s Force-Ghost was trying to stop Anakin’s rage but clearly failed.
Qui-Gon also urged Rey to rise up at the end of The Rise of Skywalker.
3. Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008 – 2020)
The one where after the Republic’s victory on Christophsis, Anakin and his new apprentice Ashoka Tano must rescue the kidnapped son of Jabba the Hutt.
It was the first official Star Wars cartoon movie released in theatres.
The Clone Wars television show fits in between these two films and ties in neatly to the beginning of the Revenge of the Sith timeline, with some events in the final season happening on the same days as key moments in the film.
4. Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005)
The Bad Batch also flits around this timeline as well.
5. Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
The second of the Anthology series, the young Han Solo meets his future co-pilot Chewbacca (and learns his family name) and encounters Lando Calrissian years before joining the Rebellion. Marks a Star Wars first where the original actor, Harrison Ford was replaced by Alden Ehrenreich as Solo.
Fun Fact: This was the first Star Wars movie to not mention the word ‘Jedi’.
6. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
The first Anthology film, Jyn, finds her caught up with the Rebel Alliance in a risky move to steal the Death Star plans in a desperate attempt to prevent the Empire from taking over the universe.
Fun Fact: This is the first Star Wars movie where the title of the movie is said. Bodhi Rook says it, confirming the title of the movie is a call sign.
7. Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)
The one where Luke Skywalker joins forces with an old Jedi Knight, a cocky pilot who likes to shoot first, a Walking Carpet and two droids to save the galaxy from the Empire’s world-destroying battle station, while also attempting to rescue Princess Leia from the mysterious Darth Vader.
Fun Fact: the original Star Wars soundtrack remains the highest-grossing non-popular music recording of all-time
8. The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978 TV Movie)
The one where it’s so bad, it’s so bad yet still is technically Star Wars canon. A TV movie featuring the original ANH cast getting up to some wild antics. One for trivia enthusiasts only…
Fun Fact: Chewbacca’s father is named Attichitcuk and his wife is called Mallatobuck. His son Lumpy’s proper name is Lumpawarrump. The name Attichitcuk was referred to in the Solo film.
9. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The one where Luke meets Yoda and his father.
Fun Fact: The classic “The first transport is away!” quote was delivered by Mark Hamill.
10. The Ewok Adventure (1984 TV Movie)
The one where Wicket and his friends agree to help two shipwrecked human children, Mace and Cindel, on a quest to find their parents. They have to rescue them from the hungry Gorax:
Fun Fact: Cindel teaches Wicket to speak English which screws up the moment in ROTJ where Leia teaches Wicket to speak English…
11. Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985 TV Movie)
The one where Marauders raid the Ewok village and steal a power supply they believe to be magical. It kinda goes off-piste and there’s a wicked witch involved.
Fun Fact: The witch Charal is a Nightsister. The third season of the Clone Wars introduced them as being Sith Witches from the planet Dathomir.
12 Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983)
We are not sure where Ashoka fits in at this time.
13. Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)
The one where Thirty years after the Empire’s defeat, the First Order appears to be looking for Luke. Rey is introduced as the yin to Kylo Ren’s yang.
Fun Fact: The Starkiller base name was inspired by that word being the original last name of Luke Skywalker as found in Lucas’s original scripting.
14. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
The one where Luke decides who is really the last Jedi.
Fun Fact: When Luke raps Rey over the knuckles with the plant, that’s a call back to when Yoda trained Luke in Empire.
15. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
The one where Rey decided who is really the last Jedi.
We’ve covered the time sequence order of the movies but there’s always going to be some conjecture about what order actually watch the movies.
We say watch all of them as you wish, others say the Machete Order is the best way to watch the films.
There has been no word on when the Rian Johnson trilogy will be set (we suspect this trilogy has been quietly canned by Lucasfilm). We suspect whenever it is set, it will be very tangential to the Skywalker saga. We also now know that the film by the guys that did Game of Thrones have left their deal with Lucasfilm and moved onto something with Netflix.
The Obi-Wan Kenobi mini-series is moving along into production – it will naturally be set before Rogue One / ANH.
Rogue Squadron is the new stand-alone Star Wars film directed by Patty Jenkins. It has been hinted at but not yet clearly stated that this film will be set POST the events of The Rise of Skywalker.
As for The Accolyte, or the Lando Calrissian show or we have no idea where those shows fit in.
