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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

This thread epic fail.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

The rest are not so good.

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

Aaaaand.... STOP

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.

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.

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

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

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.

I've watched/have the Anti-cheese Edits of the Prequels I-III, and the De-Specialized Edits of Episodes IV-VI, and truly enjoyed both.

I don't recall seeing 4k versions of either of these available yet, nor am I aware of suitable source re-leases that could be used to make such. Best of luck to you.

Try to find the original versions of the first three movies without the added CG that messes with the story a little.

The only Star Wars I’ve ever seen is the holiday special, can’t say I’d recommend it. :0 I guess to some degree that’s one way to experience the franchise though!

Unpopular opinion: just watch Visions S1&2 and then forget about the rest.

I have a master playlist on my Plex server with every Star Wars show and film in timeline order, including episodes in between episodes and seasons in between seasons (mostly for the Tales of the X series and for Rebels/Andor). It took me ages to set up, but it’s based on an article I saw somewhere. If I can find it,I’ll edit this post and link it here. But, as I recall, googling “Star Wars timeline order” should get you a pretty good and authoritative set of lists. Some differ, but they all tend to explain their decisions.

I also did this for all of the Star Trek series and films. That’s a lot longer. The Star Wars one is ~8 days. The Trek one is 33 days.