In the nearly 50 years since George Lucas first took moviegoers on a journey to a galaxy far, far away, Star Wars has become a cultural touchstone. While not every single person alive is a fan of the sci-fi franchise, you’d have a tough time finding someone who couldn’t tell you who Luke Skywalker’s father is. Star Wars is so steeped in our culture that we take an entire day to celebrate it every year.
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May 4th is the annual celebration of Star Wars Day, playing on the franchise’s iconic phrase, “May the Force (4th) Be With You.” This Thursday brings the 2023 edition of the celebration, and Lucasfilm will be releasing a couple of new shows on Disney+ in honor of the occasion. There will also be exclusive merchandise on sale for May 4th, and fans all around the world rewatching their favorite entries in the beloved franchise.
It also gives us an opportunity to take a look back at the Star Wars films and shows that have graced our screens — both big and small — for the last 46 years. What better time to dive in to the Star Wars franchise and rank all of the live-action titles that have been released thus far?
Below, you can find a complete ranking of the Star Wars movies and shows, starting with the worst and working our way up to the best. Let us know which picks you agree with!
15. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Apologies to J.J. Abrams but this one is a no-brainer. When you look at all of the Star Wars movies that have been released over the years, The Rise of Skywalker is at the bottom of the pile, and it isn’t all that close.
There are some good things to be found within the ninth chapter of the Skywalker Saga, mainly due to the excellent performances from the sequel trilogy’s core cast, but the story itself is a such a jumbled mess that it’s difficult to have a good time. The whole film feels like a course correction for a trilogy that didn’t need it, as if the creative team was more concerned with finding the lost threads of their own story from two films ago rather than picking up what was left in front of them.
One of the biggest questions surrounding Star Wars from now until eternity will focus on what Colin Trevorrow’s Episode IX would’ve looked like. Given his track record with the Jurassic World series, there’s absolutely no guarantee it would’ve been better than what Abrams delivered, but it still does make you wonder what the end of the trilogy was originally planned to be.
14. Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett (2021)
The Book of Boba Fett is a tale of two halves. The first half of the show is Boba’s redemption story, and we watch as he bonds with the misunderstood Tusken Raiders, trying to save them from the cruelty of the people who stole their land. In the back half it becomes something like The Mandalorian Season 2.5, forgoing entire episodes with Boba Fett in order to catch up with Din Djarin, Grogu, Luke Skywalker, and Ahsoka.
That first half is great. It’s a story about a misunderstood man finding himself within a tribe of misunderstood people, dealing directly with the suffering of indigenous people and the devastating effects of colonization. There’s so much to enjoy in those early episodes, but it all gets tossed out the window in an effort to be more cohesive with the rest of the TV universe.
Seeing Cad Bane in live-action made the back half of this series tolerable, but you have to sit through a whole episode of CGI Luke Skywalker first.
13. Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (2002)
The Rise of Skywalker is the only outright bad Star Wars movie. Some haven’t aged as well as others, but they all still have something really going for them.
Attack of the Clones is the weakest of the prequel trilogy, bridging the gap between the origins of Anakin and his full, action-packed turn to the Dark Side. That said, this movie still has a lot of great stuff to discover throughout. Looking back, George Lucas was really weaving a sharp political epic with these prequels, it just came across a bit convoluted and wasn’t what fans were expecting. There are a lot of slow parts, but those deep dialogue exchanges are what have aged the best for Attack of the Clones.
Obi-Wan’s entire stay in Kamino is as tense and enjoyable today as it ever was. The introduction to Jango and Boba Fett is intriguing, and time has been kind to Jango’s swift exit (drawing parallels to Boba’s demise in Return of the Jedi). The chase through Coruscant is thrilling. This movie also has some really excellent Yoda, even if the puppet will always be cooler than the CGI character. A little less of the awkwardly written love story between Anakin and Padmé and people will feel a lot differently about this one.
12. Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi
There was a lot of hype around Obi-Wan Kenobi, especially from the generation of Star Wars fans that grew up with the prequels. Reuniting Ewan McGregor with Hayden Christensen felt like a dream come true and Deborah Chow was coming off of some great Mandalorian episodes. The end product, unfortunately, isn’t anywhere near as good as everyone had hoped.
McGregor is great, as expected, and there’s a lot of wonderful nostalgia throughout the six episodes. But Obi-Wan Kenobi is all-around wonky. The pacing is off, the effects are rough, and the story seems to run in place more often than it moves forward. Not to mention the whole thing just looks bad. Between its odd lighting choices and frustrating green screen, Obi-Wan isn’t something you want to spend a ton of time looking at.
There’s a lot of irritating stuff in Obi-Wan Kenobi, but the series deserves a lot of credit for introducing fans to Vivien Lyra Blair. The actress’ performance as a young Leia Organa is truly magnificent and it would be a shame if we don’t see a lot more of her as the character in the future
11. Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Like The Rise of Skywalker, Solo: A Star Wars Story will forever be surrounded by “what ifs?”. The film was originally being helmed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, but they were replaced midway through production with Ron Howard.
The movie is still a lot of fun, and Alden Ehrenreich does a fantastic job of playing young Han, but it’s hard not to wonder what the Lord and Miller version would’ve looked like. The duo has one of the most exciting voices in the entertainment industry today, and their fingerprints are all over the bones of Solo. There are a few scenes in the movie where you can see their sharp wit and playful attitude shine through, making you wonder just how good their finished product would have been.
Alas, it wasn’t meant to be, but Howard did a solid job finishing the film and turned in an enjoyable adventure (though he’s the second-best Star Wars director in his family).
If nothing else, let’s at least hope we get more of Donald Glover’s Lando Calrissian in the future. If there’s ever a Star Wars Hall of Fame, whoever first thought of casting him in that role should be on the first ballot.
10. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Other fans probably have this trilogy-ender a little higher on their personal rankings, and I get it. While I don’t necessarily agree, it’s hard to deny just how crisp the action is in Revenge of the Sith. Perhaps the best lightsaber duels in any of the Star Wars films.
Revenge of the Sith is a good movie, one that makes you wish George Lucas would’ve kept directing other projects after the prequels ended. It’s just such a downer of a film. You know where the story is going and, as bad as you want to change things, you’re very aware that this part of the Saga has always been a tragedy.
The fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan is obviously the highlight of the entire picture, with Ewan McGregor firmly cementing his spot as one of the most beloved performers in all of Star Wars. “You were the chosen one” is nothing short of perfection.
9. The Mandalorian (2019-)
The Mandalorian would be ranked a lot higher if I would’ve written this list before the release of Season 3. This last batch of episodes really brings the whole average down.
Disney+ was launched on the back of The Mandalorian and the show became an instant sensation. Din Djarin and Grogu quickly stole the hearts of millions and became the new faces of Star Wars. The whole first season is great, as is most of the second season, but Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni started getting too caught up in tying everything back to the Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels stories. Bringing all of those animated shows to a live-action universe is proving to be a cumbersome task for the producing duo, though there are plenty of great moments to keep fans invested.
When The Mandalorian is great, it’s great because of Din and Grogu’s adventures. The father-son dynamic is wonderful and the episodic nature of their stories gives audiences a chance to see all the different corners of the galaxy. Some of those individual adventures rank amongst the best Star Wars has to offer, they’re just bogged down by a whole lot of extra nonsense.
8. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
The Force Awakens really leans into its role as both a legacy sequel and a remake, bringing back some of the original characters while also rehashing the story that Star Wars: A New Hope already told. It’s not unique by any stretch of the imagination and doesn’t do much to further the overall Star Wars universe. It’s just executed really, really well.
J.J. Abrams’ first Star Wars feature got people excited about the franchise again, playing on what we loved while introducing a new set of characters. Rey, Finn, Poe, and Kylo Ren are all great characters and that core served as a wonderful jumping-off point for Disney’s first crack at a Star Wars trilogy.
There’s some great comedy and some real emotion throughout The Force Awakens, but it lacks the heart or adventurous spirit of its predecessors. It’s a movie made to look cool and feel expensive. It checks those boxes, and delivers a lot of fun while doing so. It’s just a far cry from a Lucas Star Wars movie.
7. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999)
I know what you’re thinking. “The Phantom Menace at number seven?! This guy must be crazy!” To be honest, I agree with you. The Phantom Menace should probably be even higher.
This movie got a lot of grief when it was first released because it wasn’t what people who had been waiting nearly two decades for a new Star Wars were expecting. It also does a lot to play to a younger audience. And, yes, it’s got some wonky CGI. But time has allowed us to understand a little better what Lucas was trying to do, giving Star Wars to a new generation and trying to establish a story that had something real to say. The other two prequel films get credit for Lucas’ grand vision, but they couldn’t exist without the seeds planted in The Phantom Menace.
The original prequel also contains some of the coolest stuff in any Star Wars movie. “Duel of the Fates” is one of the best pieces of music John Williams ever composed, which is saying quite a lot. Liam Neeson put in work to establish the soul of the Jedi Order. Darth Maul is undeniably awesome. Podracing is an incredible idea that should’ve launched an entire Fast and Furious series within the Star Wars franchise. Seriously, there is so much to love about this movie.
It’s impossible for me to write about The Phantom Menace without giving a shout-out to one Jar Jar Binks, and the actor who played him, Ahmed Best. The Phantom Menace needed to not only excite existing fans, but also get young kids invested in the overall Star Wars saga. Jar Jar was the hook for so many young, soon-to-be Star Wars fans, delivering laughs and joy amidst a story about closing trade routes and silently overthrowing governments. I don’t believe Star Wars would be where it is today without Jar Jar bridging that gap for so many of us.
6. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was the first Star Wars film to play outside the sandbox of the Skywalker Saga, focusing on a group of mostly regular people who were willing to die to bring down their oppressors. It’s not supposed to be adventurous or lighthearted, like the films in the trilogies, and it never once tries to emulate those stories.
Instead of just being sad or overly serious, though, Rogue One is very purposeful in its tragedy. Like Andor, Rogue One is all about the soul of the ordinary people trapped beneath the boot of the Empire, and the film is so effective in showing you just how difficult standing up for the right thing can be.
Gareth Edwards and Tony Gilroy make for a great one-two punch in this tragic Star Wars adventure, and you can see the fingerprints of both their filmographies all over it. Rogue One is like a mashup of Michael Clayton and Godzilla, just covered with a coat of Star Wars paint. Despite its tough subject and dark ending, it’s an endlessly rewatchable movie.
5. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983)
Yes, Return of the Jedi is silly at times, but its inherent silliness is what makes it so endearing all these years later. This is exactly the movie that needed to follow the intensity and darkness of Empire Strikes Back. Episode V ended with the good guys losing, so Episode VI had to right the ship, bringing the joy back to Star Wars while giving the trilogy a happy ending.
Return of the Jedi is far and away the best-looking of the original trilogy, making great use of its Endor sets and taking fans to a different corner of the galaxy altogether. It also does a great job of actually ending something, which is a trait not enough movies possess. Had there never been another Star Wars movie, the ending of Return of the Jedi would’ve been plenty satisfying.
it’s also worth noting that without Return of the Jedi, there would be no Ewoks. They’re cute, cuddly, innocent creatures that were probably designed specifically to sell toys. But the way that Ewoks were written gives them so much depth and purpose. Instead of just appearing in a few scenes to propel merchandise sales, the Ewoks act as a spark of hope for the entire galaxy. When things seem lost, these adorable creatures with primitive weapons are willing to stand up to the entire Empire to try and do their part to fix things. I don’t care if you don’t like their TV specials, Ewoks are heroes and should be treated as such.
4. Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)
In 1977, George Lucas changed the entire entertainment industry forever. Star Wars was a turning point in our history and you can see its influence in just about every blockbuster or sci-fi film released in the four-plus decades since.
There’s still something so magical about this movie every time you watch it. Technology has evolved tremendously since 1977, but that escape pod to Tatooine still feels like a gateway into a galaxy far, far away. The reason Star Wars holds up better than so many other sci-fi films over the years is the sincerity with which Lucas approached the adventure.
A New Hope opened the door to a world none of us could’ve ever dreamed of. It turned a trio of actors into some of the most beloved faces on the entire planet. There has never been another movie like Star Wars, and there likely won’t be again.
If there’s one knock to make against A New Hope, it’s the slew of changes Lucas has gone back and made over the last 25 years. The original version will always be the best.
3. Star Wars: Andor (2022-)
When it comes to Star Wars television, nothing can compare to Andor. It’s operating on an entirely different planet than everything else the franchise has been doing the last few years.
Andor isn’t only a good Star Wars show, it’s just a great show in general. That’s what makes Tony Gilroy’s story here so compelling. It’s never about how the series can tell a new Star Wars story. Andor focuses on telling a great story about compelling people and then fitting that into a Star Wars universe.
Andor is also shot on location, with real backdrops and real sets for the characters to live in and move through. That change alone makes the show stand out from the likes of The Mandalorian and the rest of the Disney+ Star Wars fare. It’s so appealing from a visual perspective, which makes it all the more immersive.
A major part of why The Mandalorian‘s third season fell so flat is that it followed up Andor, and following up Gilroy’s writing is an impossible task. So much of Andor hinges on its writing, turning what could be interpreted as simple conversations to move the plot forward into thrilling affairs that you can’t look away from. Think about Luthen Rael’s monologue to the spy, or Kino Loy’s, “Never more than 12.” The best scripts in all of Star Wars come from Andor, and the fact that we’re getting even more is a gift we can’t take lightly.
2. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
In two of the three Star Wars trilogies, the second entry is the superior film. Empire Strikes Back laid the foundation for great sequels and The Last Jedi followed perfectly in its footsteps. It took Rian Johnson just a couple of hours to prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that he understood George Lucas’ original vision better than just about anyone else who has attempted a Star War.
A lot of very loud people got mad online when this movie came out, especially when it came to what they believed was a different take on Luke Skywalker. Well, they were wrong. Luke has always been a flawed hero who was set up to be a figure of mythical proportion because of victories he often stumbled into. The Last Jedi uses that mythology and actually digs into how that kind of pedestal would affect Luke, forcing him to reckon with his failures after decades of being told he’s infallible.
The Last Jedi also doubles down on the idea that Rey isn’t part of some kind of great Jedi lineage, reinforcing how the Force was always intended to work. From Rey’s journey to the stable kids of Canto Bight, Johnson used this movie to simply say that the Force — and Star Wars itself — is for everyone.
It’s also just an absolute visual feast of a movie. Every shot of this thing is stunning and it should come as no surprise that scenes like the fight in the throne room get talked about more than the rest of the sequel trilogy combined.
1. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
I’m not going to argue that Empire Strikes Back is a better movie than The Godfather Part II. But when it comes to taking what a movie did and improving it while also driving its overall story in an exciting new direction, Empire Strikes Back is undoubtedly the greatest sequel of all time.
George Lucas always had the plan for the whole trilogy in place when he made the first Star Wars, so he knew where the story was going to go in the sequel. The success of that first movie could’ve caused the creator to alter the course of his second act and make something that would leave people cheering, just as they did in 1977. Instead, he stuck to his guns and delivered one of the most effective endings in history.
The good guys lose in this movie! There is no happy ending for Luke, Leia, and Han. The villains win in the end. Yes, there’s another movie still to come, but that doesn’t change how risky the decision was to end where Empire does.
And think about just how many iconic Star Wars moments are packed into this thing, which still feels perfectly paced over 40 years later. Yoda’s introduction, the battle on Hoth, Boba Fett’s debut, Han’s “I know,” Darth Vader revealing his identity to Luke, it permanently planted the “Imperial March” in our heads — nearly every scene in this movie delivers something that has been at the forefront of fans’ minds for four entire decades.
The Empire Strikes Back is about as flawless as it gets, and it set the standard for everything Star Wars has become over the years.
