The Chronological Timeline Order of The Star Wars Movies
What Is the Star Wars Movie's Chronological Order?
With all the Star Wars films coming out these days, you could be forgiven for not keeping track of their chronological order.
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.
Not to mention The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett (with its post-Jedi flashbacks), The Acolyte (set 100 years before TPM), Andor, and Rangers of the New Republic! 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 occurred in their period (a long time ago) and not in the order they were theatrically released.
We will even include the Ewok side story adventures because we just loved Caravan of Courage as a kid… (hey, why is it not on Disney Plus!!)
1. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)
The one where a young Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-gon Jinn escape a hostile blockade to find allies and come across a young boy who turns about to be the Chosen One.
Fun Fact: “Phantom Menace” was the name of a villain in the “Flash Gordon” comics. This shouldn't surprise many people as George Lucas has often cited Flash Gordon as one of his inspirations for making the original Star Wars.
2. Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of The Clones (2002)
The one where Anakin Skywalker shares a forbidden romance with Padme Amidala while Obi-Wan Kenobi investigates an assassination attempt on the senator, leading to an attack of Clones.
Fun Fact: When Anakin is slaughtering the Tusken Raiders in Attack of the Clones, Qui-Gon Jinn's voice can be heard yelling, “Anakin! Anakin!”.
This is no accident, as Qui-Gon Jinn's Force-Ghost was trying to stop Anakin's rage but failed. Qui-Gon also urged Rey to rise 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 crucial moments in the film.
4. Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of The Sith (2005)
The one where Anakin and Obi-Wan rescue Palpatine from Count Dooku. Anakin is lured into a sinister plan to rule the galaxy by Palpatine, succumbs, and becomes Darth Vader.
Fun Fact: The Millennium Falcon is spied on, landing on Coruscant in Revenge of the Sith. This was before Lando or Han Solo owned it!
The Bad Batch also flits around this timeline as well.
5. Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
In the second 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. It 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, not to 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 movie's title is said. Bodhi Rook says it, confirming the movie's title is a call sign.
The timing between these two films in terms of ‘film time' appears to be a few hours,
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)
A TV movie featuring the original ANH cast getting up to some wild antics. The one where it's so bad, it's so bad, yet still technically Star Wars canon. One for trivia enthusiasts only…
Fun Fact: Chewbacca's father is named Attichitcuk, and his wife is called Mallatobuck. The name Attichitcuk was referred to in the Solo film. His son Lumpy's proper name is Lumpawarrump.
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 goes off-piste, and there's a wicked witch involved.
Fun Fact: The witch Charal is a Nightsister. In the third season of the Clone Wars, she introduced them as Sith Witches from the planet Dathomir.
12 Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of The Jedi (1983)
The one where Princess Leia walks around in a golden bikini, and there's a second Death Star.
Fun Fact: David Lynch was initially offered the chance to direct this series episode. He turned it down because he believed it was “Lucas' thing.” He went on to lead the Dune movie instead. It's fascinating how much Frank Herbert's book influenced the original Star Wars script development.
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 actual scripting.
14. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
The one where Luke decides who is the last Jedi.
Fun Fact: When Luke raps Rey over the knuckles with the plant, that refers to when Yoda trained Luke in Empire.
15. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
The one where Rey decided who was the last Jedi.
We've covered the time sequence order of the movies, but there will always be some conjecture about what demands watching the film.
We say you watch all of them as you wish; others say the Machete Order is the best way to protect the films.
There has been no word on when the Rian Johnson trilogy will be set (we suspect Lucasfilm has quietly canned this trilogy). We suspect it will be very tangential to the Skywalker saga whenever it is placed. We also now know that the film guys that did Game of Thrones have left their deal with Lucasfilm and moved on to something with Netflix.
The Obi-Wan Kenobi mini-series is moving 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 Acolyte or the Lando Calrissian show, we have no idea where those shows fit in.
