Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

First watch these:

• Star Wars Holiday Special
• The Ewok Adventure
• Ewoks: The Battle for Endor

When you have finished those, you should be filled with hate and suffering. You will welcome the dark side. Now you are ready.

Start watching

• The Phantom Menace.

Stop watching before the pod race ends.

Play the videogame

• Star Wars: Pod Racer.

Crash the first pod race, killing little Anakin.

Congratulations!

You've stopped the evil Sith lords from rising to power. You've saved the Ewoks. You've saved Jarjar. Balance in the universe remains balanced. You truly are one with the force. You are ready for the light side.

Watch

• Clone Wars

The animated series that aired on Cartoon Network. Not "The Clone Wars"!!! That's different. Don't watch that one. It sucks. You want the one made by Genddy Tartakovski, known for his masterpieces, Samurai Jack and Dexter's Laboratory and his pivotal work in the series The Powerpuff Girls.

You wont need to watch anything else.

You wont want to watch anything else.

Ever.

Watch the odd-numbered ones first, then the evens.

Watch the original Star Wars, then The Empire Strikes Back, then Return of the Jedi. The versions you found are good.

Here's the important bit, turn off Jedi as soon as you see a fat fuzzy walking teddy bear creature. The introduction of the Ewoks is when Star Wars dies.

1. Don't listen to anything the fans have to say. It's well-known that the worst thing about SW is the fans. Especially their opinions.
2. I suggest watching them in release order, including the sequels. That's how the rest of the world experienced it.
3. I didn't hate the OT remasters. I actually liked the continuity with the prequels. CGI is about what you can expect from a 2000s remaster of a 1970s-era movie.
4. I liked the prequels, I grew up with them. Jar Jar is funny. #1 is a bit more slow-paced and deals with politics more than action, but it's enjoyable (and quite relatable at the moment).
5. Disregard anything the fans have to say. The worst thing about Star Wars is the fans.
6. Fan theories are an absolute waste of time, and if you go down that rabbit hole, you'll get more hate than you've ever experienced before. SW fans suck.

Watch in release order. This is the way they were written so it will make the most sense as a first time viewer.

You will hear about the Machete order if you research Star Wars viewing orders, but this is best for subsequent watches.

Aside from the OT and PT, the projects I recommend are the Clone Wars series (it's a lot though), Rogue One, Andor, and the Mandalorian.

Kenobi was meh but had some really good moments.

Watch the sequel trilogy once if you must, but I think they're pretty bad and forgettable.

Watch the L8Wrtr edits of the prequel trilogy, then the Despecialized versions of the OG trilogy. Some say to watch in release order. I don't think it matters as much as watching the content as it was originally created, and without the stupid fluff in the prequel trilogy.

Go for release order. People (including me) can complain about episode 1 all they want, I think it's better to get a good grasp of "what was intended" first before understanding the whole fan recommendations

I'm a fan of the Machete Order.

There may be some spoilers in that blog post, it's been a while since I read it, so here it is in summary:

• A New Hope (4)
• Empire Strikes Back (5)
• Attack of the Clones (2)
• Revenge of the Sith (3)
• Return of the Jedi (5)

Phantom Menace is omitted because it's the weakest of the prequel trilogy and everything that happens in it is summarized at the beginning of Attack of the Clones anyway. If you want to be a completionist then watch it between Empire Strikes Back and Attack of the Clones.

There's good reasons for following this order, but it's hard to describe them without spoiling anything. Basically, Lucas assumed you'd watched the original trilogy when he made the prequels, so it's got a bunch of spoilers in it that the Machete Order preserves quite nicely.

Fan orders are a terrible idea don't do them. Watch in release order, feel free to skip parts that aren't interesting. The fact of the matter is that the entire series has been written by the seat of the pants of the people making it, meaning that there are absolutely no insights to be gained by watching prequels before the originals, and every entry in the series has taken great pains to be comprehensible on its own. If you skip stuff you might miss out on some "I RECOGNIZE THAT!" moments in later material, but that's fine.

Also... the prequels are really bad. You may want to skip them entirely. I would suggest watching the Original Trilogy, The Clone Wars (the 2D animated tv movie, not the 3D animated tv show), the Mandalorian season 1, and then Andor seasons 1 & 2. Those series represent everything worthwhile in the Star Wars TV and movie canon, literally nothing else is worth your time.

I'd do my best to watch them in the order they were commercially released so you can appreciate how damaging and awful the edits are.

get 6 screens and watch them all simultaneously, no audio, just subtitles.

I think that 4K77, 4K80, and 4K83 are the best way of watching the original trilogy. As for the order I think that's really up to you if you prefer the release order, or chronological order, or something else.

4 5 6 stop

Ctrl+f: "holiday special" - Phrase not found.

This thread epic fail.

Another vote for Machete order. Simply put, it is a good way to watch the original trilogy, experience the story plot in episode 5 and get the back story in the subsequent trilogy.

Watching it in episode order for new viewers will mean they will experience episode 5 very differently.

skip it and watch stark trek TNG instead

Definitely 456-123 order, I know some people have different ways they prefer to watch but I think that kind of detracts from watching how the franchise evolves over the years.

If you want more after that, rogue one and andor is pretty good, clone wars/bad batch has some good stuff (though I'd recommend finding a watch guide for clone wars, some episodes are straight up kids stuff, other episodes are almost literally Vietnam war and decapitations)

I think the sequels are interesting to watch, I'm a bit of an 8 apologist in some areas, but you have to go in with the expectation that there's a general decline in story progression and making sense from movie to movie.

Honestly though I think the series has a general decline after 5. It's all not bad, and there's some good stuff, but if you find yourself uninterested don't force yourself to continue after like episode 6.

456 123 789

I'd recommend watching them in release order, as that's how most people have experienced them. You'll have a better understanding of the commonly ascribed strengths and weaknesses of the respective films and trilogies if you watch them this way. It is also very common opinion that each trilogy is substantially worse than the previous one, so if you watch them this way then you have an off-ramp at the end of the first and second trilogies if/when you've decided you've had enough - you'll never have to sit through bad films to get to the good ones.

The Machete Order is an interesting idea but I'm a little hesitant to recommend it because so many of these fan edits are designed by people who are in so deep that they tend to skim/omit information that is actually relevant to first time viewers who have no idea what is happening. Star Wars fans, like all fans of these geek franchises, often have a hard time seeing things from the perspective of people who don't share their obsession. For that reason, I also strongly recommend against watching any of the TV series or filler/standalone films until you've finished at least the first two trilogies, because they are written for Star Wars fans to flesh out the events around the main films and are filled with tons of irrelevant references and fan service that are just going to confuse and/or bore you.

Make sure to watch Rogue One between E 3 & 4.

watch them in release order for sure, starting with Episode IV and ending with Episode III.

As for prequel versions, wherever you got the 4kXX files from should also have Schorman's HDTV rips of the prequels that I recommend. That way you get to see ugly ass puppet yoda in The Phantom Menace the way god intended, but you don't have to suffer DVD quality. If you can't find them, shoot me a DM or just download any blu-ray/disney+ rip, the prequels didn't change too much over the years besides some effects being re-rendered here and there.

Also big recommend the Andor TV show and Rogue One once you're done with the prequels. They connect the two eras nicely.

edit: oh yeah, i totally forgot. watch the Genndy Tartakovsky Clone Wars Miniseries between Episode II and Episode III. It's not super important to the story but I have a lot of nostalgia for it, and you'll enjoy seeing General Grievous actually looking cool before they completely squander him in the movie.

Definitely in chronological order of release as the other comment says, but make sure to find the despecialized edition fan re edit which brings the high quality changes to the resolution and sound, but leaves the movies as they were originally shown without the terrible edits from Lucas in the late 90s.

Also, feel free to skip all of the sequels. They are nonsensical and self defeating with every successive installment. I gave the episode 7 a pass on their rehashing of the original and was excited to see a female hero taking up the mantle, but 8 and 9 just undo any positive or coherent story/message structure that could have spun from 7.

Edit: Do not miss Rogue One or Andor. I'd watch those after the prequel trilogy and in order of release too

Just posted this in a thread about watching the show Andor. Additional context, I’d watch the movies first before you decide to get into any of the shows

——-

I highly recommend Rogue One as well. It follows Cassian Andor as a spy for the rebellion immediately after the second (and final) season of the show.

Rogue One is a story set immediately before the first movie: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Immediately as in the final scene of Rogue One is the first scene of A New Hope.

Similar to the other commenter, the problem is that Rogue One is by far the best movie of the entire franchise, so you start at the high point.

If you like the movie and want more Star Wars, I recommend this order. I’ll list the title and the “episode” number

1. Rogue One (3.9)
2. A New Hope (4)
3. The Empire Strikes Back (5)
4. The Phantom Menace (1)
5. Attack of the Clones (2)
6. Revenge of the Sith (3)
7. Return of the Jedi (6)

There are three more movies after #6, but there’s almost no point in watching them.

It’s really important to remember that a lot of the Star Wars movies aren’t good but they’re cultural institutions and you kinda have to accept them as they are. The writer/director of the original trilogy spent a lot of time tweaking and editing them after their original releases including adding new scenes digitally created decades after the release.

4 (A New Hope) 5 (The Empire Strikes Back)

Aaaaand.... STOP

Watch versions as close as possible to the original theatrical versions of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. Don't even bother watching anything else with the words "Star Wars" on it, life's too short to sit around watching boring, shitty media that wastes your time. Can't say I recommend almost any of the novels, either.

The prequels were made with the idea in mind that people had seen the originals, and after they saw the prequels, they would watch it in Prequel->OT order.

The correct way to watch Star Wars if you've never seen it before is Original Trilogy, then Prequel Trilogy.

Just watch Andor and Rogue One, the rest is for children.

Machete order or bust.

The machete method Is my recommendation, I did this with a newbie and they really enjoyed it. 4, 5, 2, 3, 6

with a lightsaber handle in your butt. and a droid on your lap.

While I don't recommend it for a first watch, I have access to a copy of the fulcrum cut, a super-cut of the last three episodes of Clone Wars and Revenge of the Sith.

You can DM me if you want it

1. Star Wars
2. Empire Strikes Back
3. Maybe Rogue One

The rest are not so good.