If you are tired of watching Star Wars in the correct order all the time, how about trying the best order?
Star Wars in one of the most iconic and honestly best franchises that has ever been produced. Most people put it into the same category as the likes of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.
If you're anything like me, you've probably seen the movies multiple times already so, if you want to switch things up a little for your next binging session, here's how you watch Star Wars in the best order!
Btw - there are multiple different possibilities, and we're only including the movies and not shows like The Mandalorian or Obi-Wan Kenobi, so there's bound to be some plots that are missing.
Star Wars: Chronological Order
If you like Star Wars, you know that George Lucas filmed later parts of the story first. Consequently, the first Star Wars film released is actually Episode 4. If you find this arrangement confusing, particularly if you're starting the franchise and wish to follow the story in chronological order, here's the right sequence for you.
This order ensures you gain all the necessary knowledge to comprehend the plot of Star Wars. However, it's important to note that it's far from perfect.
The biggest problem with this order is, that it completely butchers one of the biggest reveals in TV history, making it subpar in our opinion. But hey, you do you.
- Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
- Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
- Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
- Solo (optional)
- Rogue One (optional)
- Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
- Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
- Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
- Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
- Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
- Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker
Just a short tip towards the end, there is a reason that the Solo movie is not very popular, and we actually recommend you just leave it out. We simply included it because... well, it was released. (This tip also applies to all the other orders we're going to mention).
Star Wars: Release Order
If you're more of a nostalgic repeat watcher, you might want to stick with the order the movies released in. It might be a little less coherent plot wise, but at least the movie quality (not the writing, though) improves with every movie until it climaxes with the visual appeal of "The Rise of Skywalker".
It is not necessarily a bad order, though, as it gives you a nice little recap of Vader's and Kenobi's origins. Not only that, but it's pretty much the order most people watched Star Wars in.
- Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
- Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
- Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
- Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
- Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
- Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
- Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
- Rogue One (optional)
- Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
- Solo (optional)
- Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker
You can leave out both Rogue One and Solo here, as they don't really add much to the overall story and aren't part of one of the three Trilogies.
Star Wars: The Perfect Order
Now, finally, we've come to the best order! This one eliminated all the problems of the other two and leaves you with the crème de la crème of the Star Wars story and how it's told.
You don't get any spoilers, cut out the annoying or bad movies, and truly just get the most out of the experience. It is called the Machete order, but we improved a little on it by removing the newest trilogy, as it just didn't really live up to the expectations (a little elitist and opinionated I know).
For this one, you start with Rogue One as it perfectly sets the stage for the original Trilogy, include the last two movies of the prequels as a flashback and finish strong with Return of the Jedi!
- Rogue One
- Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
- Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
- Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
- Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
- Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Granted, Attack of the Clones is probably the worst movie on this list, it still provides some important context to the character and story of Anakin Skywalker, as well as an explanation as to why he never found his son on Tattooine (because of his distaste for sand).
So we would definitely recommend you include it into your Star Wars binge-session and cut out all the others.