Star Wars Movies in Order: Release, Timeline and Machete (2026)

The Short Answer

Watch in release order if anyone in the room has not seen them before. Star Wars is the rare franchise where release order and story order are different films in a different sequence, and the difference is not academic: the saga's central reveal arrives at the end of The Empire Strikes Back, and chronological order tells you the answer roughly four hours earlier by showing you Anakin Skywalker become Darth Vader first.

Watch in chronological order on a rewatch. Once you know how it ends, the timeline becomes one continuous story about a family across two generations, and the prequels stop being a detour and start being the setup. All 13 films back to back run 28h 43m, and the nine numbered episodes alone are 20h 24m.

Which Star Wars Movie Is Actually the Best?

The order is answerable. The ranking never is, so before the lists here it is as five head-to-head choices: the first film of each of the five eras. Tap the one you prefer and your ranking builds itself, which is the whole of what Shortlist does, across everything you watch.

Make your tier list right here

Five films, head-to-head. Tap the one you prefer and we will build your order, then label it S through D.

Which do you prefer?

The Phantom Menace

1999

VS

Star Wars: A New Hope

1977

Tap your favorite

Star Wars Movies in Release Order

All 13 theatrical films, oldest to newest. Runtimes are theatrical cuts.

The original trilogy is 6h 17m of that. The longest film in the franchise is The Last Jedi at 2h 32m; the shortest is Star Wars: The Clone Wars at 1h 38m.

Star Wars Movies in Chronological Order

The in-universe timeline, measured against the Battle of Yavin: BBY is before it, ABY is after it. This is the order the story happens in, and it is a different sequence from the one above.

Two things move a long way. Everything set earlier than the 1977 film now comes first, which is 13h 3m of story before A New Hope begins. And The Mandalorian and Grogu lands between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, in the gap the television series occupies.

The Machete Order

Proposed by Rod Hilton in 2011, and the one order on this page that is a person's argument rather than a fact. It plays the original two films, cuts to the prequels at the moment Empire raises the question they answer, then returns for Return of the Jedi. The Phantom Menace is dropped entirely, on the grounds that nothing in the rest of the saga depends on it.

That is 5 films and 10h 59m, against 20h 24m for all nine episodes. It is the shortest complete route through the original story, and the strongest argument for it is structural: Vader's line at the end of Empire is a question, and the prequels are the only answer to it.

So Which Order Should You Actually Watch?

Where the Episodes Fit

Nine of the 13 films carry an episode number, and they are the spine everything else hangs off. The prequel trilogy is Episodes I to III (6h 56m), the original trilogy is IV to VI (6h 17m), and the sequel trilogy is VII to IX (7h 11m). Together the 9 numbered episodes run 20h 24m.

The other 4 are outside that numbering. Rogue One leads directly into the opening minutes of A New Hope and is the one standalone that changes how another film plays. Solo and The Mandalorian and Grogu are self-contained. The Clone Wars is animated, and it is a pilot for the television series rather than a chapter of the saga.

Do You Need to Watch the Star Wars TV Shows?

No, not for any of the three orders above. Andor, The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan Kenobi and the animated series are excellent and several are better than the weaker films, but none of them is required to follow the numbered episodes. The one honest exception is The Mandalorian and Grogu, which picks up characters the television series introduced and is written to be watchable without them. If you want to rank the shows, that is a separate list, and our TV show tier list guide covers how to do it.

Star Wars Watch Order FAQ

What order should I watch the Star Wars movies in?

Release order, if anyone watching has not seen them before. The saga's central reveal arrives at the end of The Empire Strikes Back, and chronological order spoils it hours earlier by showing you Anakin Skywalker become Darth Vader first. Chronological order is the better rewatch, not the better first watch.

How many Star Wars movies are there?

13 have been released in cinemas, running 28h 43m back to back. That is the nine numbered episodes (20h 24m), the three live-action standalone films Rogue One, Solo and The Mandalorian and Grogu, and the animated The Clone Wars from 2008.

What is the Machete order?

A viewing order proposed by Rod Hilton in 2011: Star Wars: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, Return of the Jedi. The prequels become a flashback watched at the exact moment Vader's line at the end of Empire raises the question they answer, and The Phantom Menace is dropped entirely. It is 5 films and 10h 59m, and it is the shortest complete route through the original story.

Do I need to watch The Clone Wars movie?

No. The 2008 animated film is a pilot for the television series that followed it, and nothing in the numbered episodes depends on it. Watch it if you intend to watch the series, which is where that story is actually told, and skip it otherwise.

Where does The Mandalorian and Grogu fit in the timeline?

After Return of the Jedi and before The Force Awakens, in the same gap the television series occupies, five years after the Empire fell at Endor. It is written to be watchable on its own, so it does not change the order of anything around it.

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