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As the Star Wars universe has expanded over the past several decades, so has the discourse on the best order to watch all the films. There’s the Machete Order, the Time Machine Order, and a whole host of other inventive options.
But as Disney+ throws more and more TV series into the mix — most recently Obi Wan Kenobi– You might want to take a page out of the MCU fans book and stick to one of the two most intuitive watch orders: either chronological or by release date.
Given that all of the events take place in a galaxy far, far away, it’s no surprise that Star Wars doesn’t adhere to Earth’s BCE/CE dating system. You’ll sometimes see CRC — an unspecified initialism used in a 2018 reference work by Lucasfilm’s Pablo Hidalgo — that sets Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope in the year 7977 CRC. Far more common, however, is a set of initialisms first created by fans: BBY for “Before the Battle of Yavin” and ABY for “After the Battle of Yavin”. The Battle of Yavin marked the end of the Death Star’s destruction A new hopemeaning film occurs in 0 BBY.
That way you don’t have to do math to figure out the number of years in between A new hope (the original war of stars) and other films or series. The Phantom Menacefor example, 32 VBY takes place 32 years before Luke Skywalker comes into the picture.
Read on for the rest of the chronological timeline, based on Digital Spy’s comprehensive breakdown, followed by a list ordered by release date.
For now, we’ve only picked up canonical shows and movies that have already premiered. But the series with Diego Luna Andor– which will be released on Disney+ on August 31, 2022 – is expected to take place around the same time as Star Wars rebels. And based on Ahsoka’s (played by Rosario Dawson) recent appearances in The Mandalorian and Boba Fett’s bookpeople are predicting that their spinoff series, Ahsoka-the kicked away Production in May – will take place after (or at least close to) these events.
*Asterisks indicate animated content.
Table of Contents
Fall of the Jedi
1. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) // 32VBY
2. Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) // 22VBY
3rd *Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) // 22VBY (Movie)
4. *Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008-2014, 2020) // 22-19 BBY (TV series)
5. Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith (2005) // 19VBY
domination of the empire
6. *Star Wars: The Bad Batch (since 2021) // 19 BBY
7. Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) // 13-10 BBY
8th. Obi Wan Kenobi (2022) // 9 BBY
Age of Rebellion
9. *Star Wars rebels (2014-2018) // 5-1 BBY
10 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) // 0 BBY
11. Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) // 0BBY – 0ABY
12. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980) // 3 AB
13. Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983) // 4 AB
The new republic
14 The Mandalorian (since 2019) // 9 ABY
fifteen. Boba Fett’s book (2021-2022) // ~9 AB
Rise of the First Order
16. *Star Wars Resistance (2018-2020) // 34 AB
17 Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015) // 34 AB
18 Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017) // 34 AB
19 Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker (2019) // ~35 AB
- Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)
- Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
- Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983)
- Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)
- Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002)
- Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith (2005)
- *Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) (Movie)
- *Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008-2014, 2020) (TV show)
- *Star Wars rebels (2014-2018)
- Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)
- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
- Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017)
- Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
- *Star Wars Resistance (2018-2020)
- The Mandalorian (2019-present)
- Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
- *Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021-present)
- Boba Fett’s book (2021-2022)
- Obi Wan Kenobi (2022)
[h/t Digital Spy]