A Daunting Task

In my not-even-remotely-humble opinion, 2020 is the best time to be a Star Wars fan. The Mandalorian is so unimaginably good it makes everything that came before it better. HOWEVER, it builds on decades worth of existing media, creating massive problems for children and other potential new fans.

This article is my attempt to chart some paths through the Star Wars Universe for those coming to it fresh. It will be entirely spoiler-free.

Does Star Wars live up to all the hype?

Sometimes.

There is simply no denying that Star Wars is a mixed bag. It contains some of the best films ever made, and some of the worst. Let me quickly introduce a grade scale, so that as we move forward, I can give you an idea of how good (and bad) things get.

• As: Every one of these is solid. Worth watching more than once. Some are masterpieces.
• Bs: Flawed, but still worth watching. Maybe even rewatching.
• Cs: Might be worth watching. But only once. And you might regret it.
• Ds: Just bad. Don’t bother.
• Fs: Actively painful. Only worth watching ironically.

Star Wars fans are notoriously argumentative and disagreeable when it comes to deciding which parts of Star Wars are better/worse than others. Part of the fun of being a fan is fighting with each other about all of this.

I will make no attempts to be neutral in these debates. The grades I give are my own. Feel free to fight with me about them ;-)

How big is Star Wars at this point?

Massive. So massive, that it’s actually impossible to give a simple answer to this question.

At its heart, Star Wars is a trilogy of film trilogies that has recently been christened “The Skywalker Saga”. The creator of Star Wars, George Lucas, decided to start in the middle of that story, so the Episodes of this Saga were released in an unusual order:

• The Original Trilogy
  • Episode IV: A New Hope, 1977, A+
  • Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, 1980, A+
  • Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, 1983, A
• The Prequel Trilogy
  • Episode I: The Phantom Menace, 1999, B
  • Episode II: Attack of the Clones, 2002, B-
  • Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, 2005, B+
• The Sequel Trilogy
  • Episode VII: The Force Awakens, 2015, A
  • Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, 2017, A+
  • Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, 2019, C

Beyond that, there are a handful of television shows, and literally hundreds of comics, novels, video games, and the like. It’s a lot. It’s too much.

But don’t worry. There are a few good paths through the wilderness.

The Beginning of All Paths

Without a doubt, the only way to begin your journey through Star Wars is to watch the Original Trilogy. They are the source of everything else. If you don’t like them, turn back now.

• Episode IV: A New Hope, 1977, A+
• Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, 1980, A+
• Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, 1983, A

Ok. Did you finish those? Did you like them? Great! Let’s keep going, then.

The End of All Paths

Eventually, you’ll want to get to The Mandalorian. If you are the kind of person who likes to eat desert first, you can go ahead and watch it now. You will be missing out on a ton of references and inside jokes, but it does stand on its own.

That being said, I would highly recommend that you don’t do this. Be patient. Take the longer path, and the payoff will be more satisfying.

The Next Big Step

I’m sorry to do this to you, but you need to watch the Prequels. They are not good movies. Sometimes they are painfully bad. But they contain some concepts and characters that you’ll need in order to fully appreciate the great stuff that comes later.

• Episode I: The Phantom Menace, 1999, B
• Episode II: Attack of the Clones, 2002, B-
• Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, 2005, B+

The Longest Step

Ok. I know this is a big ask, but I want you to watch some television now. A lot of it. Eleven seasons of it.

The future of Star Wars, at least as far as the eye can currently see, will be on Disney+. They are blurring the distinction between film and tv, producing movie-quality productions and releasing them as short series. You can keep watching feature films if you want to, but you will be woefully unprepared for The Mandalorian, which should be your ultimate goal. In a way, The Mandalorian is really just a live-action continuation of these animated shows.

• Star Wars: The Clone Wars, 7 Seasons, 133 Episodes

The first two seasons of Clone Wars are fine, but not great. The rest of it ranges from good to perfect. It takes everything that was dumb about the Prequels and slowly transforms them into gold.

If you want to skim the first two seasons, that’s fine. Just watch these:

• just the good ones

Then watch seasons 3 through 7 in their entirety. By the time you get to the end (especially the last three episodes of the last season) you’ll have no regrets.

• Star Wars: Rebels, 4 Seasons, 75 Episodes

I like Rebels a lot. It continues the story lines of some Clone Wars characters and brings you right up to the Original Trilogy era again.

The Shortest Step

Watch Rogue One. It’s a delight.

• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, 2016, A+

Three Steps Back

Watch the Original Trilogy again.

• Episode IV: A New Hope, 1977, A+
• Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, 1980, A+
• Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, 1983, A

Reflect on how every little part of these films has now been expanded and explored in fun new ways.

The Best Step

Watch The Mandalorian.

• The Mandalorian, 2 Seasons, 16 Episodes

You’re welcome.

A Fork in the Road

Now’s the time to face the Sequels.

• Episode VII: The Force Awakens, 2015, A
• Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, 2017, A+
• Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, 2019, C

Among the Fandom, there’s generally consensus that The Force Awakens is pretty good. It echoes a lot of elements from A New Hope, arguably too many elements.

The Last Jedi was hugely divisive. It strives to take Star Wars in some new directions, and challenges a lot of expectations. It’s clunky at times, especially in the middle, but personally, I love it.

I think The Rise of Skywalker is the worst part of Star Wars so far: substantially worse than the Prequels. It took all the promise of Episodes 7 and 8 and squandered it. There are a couple of cool things here, but it feels more like a series of video game quests than an actual film. Still, you should maybe watch it, because future content will assume that you have.

The Dark Path

• The Holiday Special