The Star Wars galaxy is always growing, and we’re less than two weeks away from the next major film release – The Mandalorian and Grogu. But where does this film fit into the timeline? What order should you watch George Lucas’ movies in, let alone the staggering number of tie-in TV shows (both live-action and animated)?
Some viewers prefer to watch Star Wars in release order. That has certain advantages; it means you get to the saga as it took shape, and you can spot the themes and ideas developing. But watching Star Wars in timeline order is also incredibly rewarding, because you can join the narrative threads much more easily. This timeline includes every canon Star Wars TV show and movie released to date (plus The Mandalorian and Grogu). There is one exception: the anthology Tales shows, mainly set during the Clone Wars or the Dark Times of the Empire’s reign. These are best watched after Revenge of the Sith.
Note: Events in Star Wars are typically dated according to their relationship with A New Hope, the first Star Wars movie. You either have “BBY” (Before Battle of Yavin) or “ABY” (After Battle of Yavin).
Young Jedi Adventures may be aimed at kids, but it’s a tremendous two-season series that explores the High Republic Era. This was the golden age of the Jedi and the Republic, a time when the light side shone across a dark galaxy. The stories interweave subtly with Lucasfilm Publishing’s phenomenal Star Wars: The High Republic initiative.
Leslye Headland’s The Acolyte is set 100 years before the Skywalker saga, at the tail-end of the High Republic. It shows a Jedi Order already struggling against their own dark side, let alone the rising threat of the Sith. The Acolyte was cancelled after its first season, so there are currently a lot of loose threads. Star Wars will hopefully resolve them all in some form.
The Skywalker saga officially begins with The Phantom Menace, in which rogue Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn stumbles upon the young Anakin Skywalker. Unknown to the Jedi, the fate of the Republic is already sealed in this movie; corrupt politician Sheev Palpatine manipulates his way into the position of Chancellor. The threat of the Sith once again looms over the galaxy, as Darth Maul emerges from the shadows after the Trade Federation attack Naboo.
The Sith engineer the beginning of a galactic conflict, the Clone Wars, which will ultimately lead to the Republic’s fall. Meanwhile, Jedi Padawan Anakin Skywalker begins an ill-advised romance with senator Padmé Amidala, even as he wrestles with other attachments.
The Skywalker saga avoids most of the Clone Wars, focusing only on their beginning and ending. Lucas eventually returned to the conflict in animated form, with a tremendous seven-season series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Disney initially cancelled The Clone Wars before its resolution, but the final season released on Disney+ in 2020. The final four episodes are concurrent with Revenge of the Sith.
The turning point of the entire Skywalker saga, as the Clone Wars end with a Sith victory and the rise of the Empire. Revenge of the Sith is seen as the crown of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, an epic that explores what it takes to make a Jedi fall. The novelization, by Matt Stover, is one of the best Star Wars books ever written.
Spinning straight out of The Clone Wars Season 7 and Revenge of the Sith, The Bad Batch is a three-season masterpiece starring Clone Force 99 – a group of mutant clones who go rogue during the Dark Times of the Empire’s reign. This series picks up many of the different plots from The Clone Wars, while also foreshadowing elements of the sequel trilogy. Plus, there are phenomenal Easter eggs to the old Star Wars Expanded Universe, especially in the final season.
It’s quite hard to figure out a precise date for Maul – Shadow Lord, the latest Star Wars animated TV show. This picks up during the Dark Times of the Empire’s reign, with Darth Maul seeking an apprentice to help him get revenge on Palpatine – and ultimately coming blade-to-blade with the Emperor’s new apprentice. Stormtrooper designs suggest this probably happens around 18 BBY, possibly at the same time as the end of The Bad Batch Season 2.
Set roughly a decade before A New Hope, Solo: A Star Wars Story is one of Lucasfilm’s two “anthology” projects. It’s the origin story of Han Solo, the iconic smuggler played by Harrison Ford in the Skywalker saga, but with Alden Ehrenreich playing the young Han. The film also ties in with Maul’s criminal enterprises.
Revenge of the Sith ended with Obi-Wan Kenobi in self-imposed exile on the desert planet Tatooine. The Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ TV show picks up 10 years later, when Obi-Wan is forced out into the wider galaxy. Featuring the return of prequel stars Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen, it’s a genuine Star Wars event.
Created by Tony Gilroy, Andor is a popular and critically-acclaimed masterpiece exploring what it’s like to resist the Empire at the ground level. Season 1 is the origin story of Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor, an important Rebel agent destined to change the fate of the galaxy. This first season is set five years before the Battle of Yavin, but Season 2 took a different approach.
Andor Season 2 is split into several chunks, each set a year later in the Star Wars timeline. Together, they tell the story of how the Rebel Alliance became a force to be reckoned with, shining a light on Cassian Andor’s role in particular. It runs concurrently with Star Wars Rebels, and some events spin out into that animated show.
A spiritual sequel to The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels tells the story of a single rebel cell based on Lothal – and the crucial part they play as the Rebel Alliance takes shape. The series establishes a strong legacy for the Jedi during this era, bringing back Anakin Skywalker’s apprentice Ahsoka Tano for an encounter with Darth Vader, and adds crucial new elements of Force mythology to the franchise.
Set immediately before the events of A New Hope, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is one of Disney’s best Star Wars movies. It focuses on Felicity Jones’ Jyn Erso, an unlikely recruit to the Rebel Alliance who will lead a team to recover the Death Star plans. The dramatic finale features one of Darth Vader’s most iconic scenes.
The film that started it all, originally titled “Star Wars” but retitled when Lucas began to build it out into a franchise. This is it: the moment when Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker, Carrie Fisher’s Leia Organa, and Harrison Ford’s Han Solo unite to take on the Empire. A classic everyman hero story, this is reframed by the wider Star Wars timeline.
The Galactic Civil War continues in The Empire Strikes Back, which features one of the greatest cinematic twists in the history of cinema. If A New Hope put Star Wars on the map, The Empire Strikes Back transformed it into one of the most enduring franchises of all time. It deepens the galaxy’s lore, establishing so much that would be explored over the next few decades.
The Star Wars original trilogy closes with Return of the Jedi, featuring a wonderful redemption twist that ties up the Chosen One‘s arc. Emperor Palpatine emerges from the shadows once again, revealing his true nature as he tries to seduce Luke Skywalker to the dark side. It’s the moment when the fate of the galaxy was decided.
Premiering alongside the launch of Disney+ in 2019, The Mandalorian Season 1 introduces viewers to Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin and his delightful ward, Grogu. The first two seasons are epic, building to a climax in which the Imperial Remnant proves just how dangerous it truly is – only for the show’s heroes to get unexpected help. The timeline is a little certain for this and the shows that follow; they’re all part of the so-called “Mandoverse,” and Lucasfilm execs are unclear over how much time passes between seasons and shows.
Starring Temuera Morrison as the former bounty hunter Boba Fett, The Book of Boba Fett reshapes the character’s personal world. It’s largely set on Tatooine, exploring the various criminal empires there, but also features important roles for Din Djarin and Grogu. This is an important part of the Mandoverse, because The Mandalorian Season 3 makes no sense without it.
The Mandalorian Season 3 continues Din Djarin’s story, as he seeks redemption in the Waters of Mandalore and ultimately leads his people back to their ancestral homeworld. The Mandalorian Season 3 deepens the threat of the Imperial Remnant, finally explaining why they wanted Grogu in the first place. It’s essentially about wrapping up the entire first arc, while several elements serve as setup for The Mandalorian and Grogu.
Ahsoka Season 1 stars Rosario Dawson as the live-action Ahsoka Tano, a role she previously played in The Mandalorian Season 2. The main focus lies on the Imperial Remnant, and a desperate attempt to rescue Grand Admiral Thrawn – a strategist even Palpatine respected – from a distant galaxy. All the evidence suggests this too will run on into The Mandalorian and Grogu, while Ahsoka Season 2 is expected to air later this year.
A delightful standalone Star Wars TV series, Skeleton Crew stars a group of kids who escape their isolated homeworld and find themselves caught up in the chaos of the Star Wars galaxy. Its placement on this timeline should be seen as provisional, because nothing about it is particularly fixed. Hopefully, Lucasfilm will clarify the timeline.
The next Star Wars movie, The Mandalorian and Grogu brings the Mandoverse to the big screen. Lucasfilm has been careful to stress that no “homework” is needed to appreciate the film, but it nonetheless builds out of everything else we’ve seen in the Mandoverse since 2019. After seven years, Star Wars is back in theaters.
There’s a massive gap between the original trilogy and the sequels, only partly filled by the Mandoverse. Nearing the sequel trilogy, though, there’s Resistance Season 1; an animated show exploring the rise of the First Order, the newest incarnation of the Empire. The final episodes tie in to The Force Awakens.
Daisy Ridley makes her debut as Rey in The Force Awakens, one of the highest-grossing films of all time. This introduces viewers to a very different galaxy, where the dark side has again risen to dominance and there’s a new superweapon in play. Steeped in nostalgia for the original trilogy, The Force Awakens serves as the foundation for everything that follows.
Spinning straight out of the events of The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi tells the story of Rey’s training under Luke Skywalker – even as the First Order comes closer than ever to wiping out the Resistance. A controversial film, this is deeply divisive; some see it as the best Star Wars movie ever made, while others criticize it heavily.
Resistance Season 2 kicks off after the events of The Rise of Skywalker and The Last Jedi. It continues to tell the story of a single Resistance cell, struggling to survive in a galaxy now dominated by the First Order. Along the way, there are some unexpected Sith elements.
Finally, The Rise of Skywalker brings an end to the entire Skywalker saga. Ridley’s Rey and Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren face off against a resurrected Palpatine, the true architect of the First Order. Star Wars has been reluctant to move beyond this point in the timeline, but all that will change next year, with Starfighter – the first film set after the sequel trilogy.
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