{"id":34,"date":"2018-04-10T19:12:11","date_gmt":"2018-04-10T19:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/54.191.106.132\/?p=34"},"modified":"2019-12-13T10:12:05","modified_gmt":"2019-12-13T18:12:05","slug":"what-order-should-i-watch-the-star-wars-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/what-order-should-i-watch-the-star-wars-movies\/","title":{"rendered":"What Order Should I Watch the Star Wars Movies?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Whether you\u2019ve seen the entire\u00a0<em>Star Wars<\/em>\u00a0saga one hundred times over and want to introduce them to a friend, have caught a new release and want to dive into the rest, or have never seen a single film in the franchise, the choices are a little overwhelming. With multiple episodes and an ever-growing catalog, where do you start, and what is the proper\u00a0<em>Star Wars<\/em>\u00a0viewing order? Since the original trilogy starts in the middle of the saga\u2019s timeline, there are a couple of viewing options. To help you prep for your epic sci-fi binge, here\u2019s a guide for how to watch\u00a0<em>Star Wars<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some (including George Lucas) recommend seeing the\u00a0<em>Star Wars<\/em>\u00a0movies in order chronologically. That would look like:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Star Wars: Episode I &#8211; The Phantom Menace<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Star Wars: Episode II &#8211; Attack of the Clones<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Star Wars: Episode III &#8211; Revenge of the Sith<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atomtickets.com\/movies\/solo-a-star-wars-story\/213940\">Solo: A Star Wars Story<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atomtickets.com\/movies\/rogue-one-a-star-wars-story\/206405\">Rogue One: A Star Wars Story<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Star Wars: Episode IV &#8211; A New Hope<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Star Wars: Episode V &#8211; The Empire Strikes Back<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Star Wars: Episode VI &#8211; Return of the Jedi<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atomtickets.com\/movies\/star-wars-the-force-awakens\/175811\">Star Wars: Episode VII &#8211; The Force Awakens<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atomtickets.com\/movies\/star-wars-the-last-jedi\/206406\">Star Wars: Episode VIII -The Last Jedi<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atomtickets.com\/movies\/star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker\/249997\">Star Wars: Episode IX -The Rise of Skywalker<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It\u2019s easy to see the logic in this. It avoids any confusion about the timeline, and you are seeing the story unfold with the characters ageing accordingly. While this is fun for a re-watch, it may not be the best for a FIRST viewing. Here are three reasons why:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>You\u2019d be starting with what many feel are the weakest film of the saga. If screening the series to newbies,\u00a0<em>The Phantom Menace<\/em>\u00a0may not ignite their world. In fact, when followed up with\u00a0<em>Attack of the Clones<\/em>, they may want to fly away from the series faster than the Millennium Falcon in hyperdrive.<\/li>\n<li>Episodes I, II, and III are more enjoyable with the previous knowledge gained from watching IV, V, and VI. The prequels were created knowing that most of the galaxy had seen the original trilogy, so you will recognize all of the references.<\/li>\n<li>The original trilogy successfully welcomed an audience to a whole universe. While there is a slight air of mystery, there\u2019s enough exposition to easily understand what is happening. Also, the audience is experiencing the plot through Luke Skywalker\u2019s eyes, which is a magical experience. The revelations Luke encounters have a similar impact on the viewer. Having this solid foundation makes the rest of the films worthwhile.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><b>RELEASE ORDER<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Many say you should just watch the movies in the order they were released:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Original trilogy: IV, V, and VI<\/li>\n<li>Prequel trilogy: I, II, III<\/li>\n<li>Sequel trilogy and beyond: VII, VIII, IX<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The wild cards here would be\u00a0<em>Rogue One<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Solo<\/em>. For anyone who prefers modern movies,\u00a0<em>Rogue One<\/em>\u00a0wouldn\u2019t be a bad starting point before launching into the original trilogy. It\u2019s an excellent standalone film, so it also works well after\u00a0<em>Return of the Jedi<\/em>\u00a0or even after all the episode films have been viewed.<\/p>\n<p><b>THE ATOM TICKETS MODIFIED MACHETE ORDER<\/b><\/p>\n<p>A few years ago, someone suggested skipping\u00a0<em>The Phantom Menace<\/em>\u00a0altogether and watching the rest in the so-called\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nerdist.com\/star-wars-machete-viewing-order-is-the-best-way-to-reintroduce-someone-to-the-saga\/\">machete order<\/a>: with a sequence of IV, V, II, III, VI, VII, VIII, etc.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re pretty close to agreeing with that\u00a0<em>but<\/em>\u00a0we\u2019re completists so we still think you should include\u00a0<em>The Phantom Menace<\/em>\u00a0and the standalone stories. So here\u2019s our preferred viewing order:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atomtickets.com\/movies\/solo-a-star-wars-story\/213940\">Solo: A Star Wars Story<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atomtickets.com\/movies\/rogue-one-a-star-wars-story\/206405\">Rogue One: A Star Wars Story<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Star Wars: Episode IV &#8211; A New Hope<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Star Wars: Episode V &#8211; The Empire Strikes Back<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Star Wars: Episode I &#8211; The Phantom Menace<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Star Wars: Episode II &#8211; Attack of the Clones<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Star Wars: Episode III &#8211; Revenge of the Sith<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Star Wars: Episode VI &#8211; Return of the Jedi<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atomtickets.com\/movies\/star-wars-the-force-awakens\/175811\">Star Wars: Episode VII &#8211; The Force Awakens<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atomtickets.com\/movies\/star-wars-the-last-jedi\/206406\">Star Wars: Episode VIII -The Last Jedi<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atomtickets.com\/movies\/star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker\/249997\">Star Wars: Episode IX -The Rise of Skywalker<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whether you\u2019ve seen the entire\u00a0Star Wars\u00a0saga one hundred times over and want to introduce them to a friend, have caught a new release and want to dive into the rest, or have never seen a single film in the franchise, the choices are a little overwhelming. With multiple episodes and an ever-growing catalog, where do [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":35,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11192,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions\/11192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}