Star Wars Sequel Trilogy Timeline Reveals Key Details Behind Original Trilogy Heroes

An updated Star Wars timeline contained in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – The Visual Dictionary reveals key details behind Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) in the years between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. The timeline, once relating history to BBY (Before Battle of Yavin) and ABY (After Battle of Yavin) — referring to Luke’s destruction of the first Death Star in A New Hope — is now recorded by “BSI,” Before Starkiller Incident, citing the firing of the First Order’s super weapon that destroyed the Hosnian system in The Force Awakens.

Leia and Han’s son, Ben Solo (Adam Driver), was born on Chandrila, also the site of the New Republic’s Galactic Senate, in 29 BSI. 10 years later, in the same year that future Jedi Rey (Daisy Ridley) is born, Luke begins training Ben in the ways of the Force.

In 12 BSI, Rey is abandoned on desert planet Jakku, and Luke begins investigating leads mentioning Exegol, the hidden world of the Sith. 13 years later, in Rise of Skywalker, Rey follows these leads to confront returned Sith Lord Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid).

Six years before The Force Awakens, Luke’s Jedi temple is destroyed and the Jedi Master vanishes; Ben Solo falls to the Dark Side and his parents drift apart. This same year, Leia is ousted from New Republic politics by scandal and she begins to form a paramilitary group: the Resistance. (The scandal, played out in novel Star Wars: Bloodline, was Leia being exposed as the daughter of Darth Vader.)

In 5 BSI, worlds begin to secede from the New Republic, forming the visible political core of the First Order, while its military core secretly grows in the Unknown Regions. This same year, Leia begins the search for her missing brother, who had exiled himself on Ahch-To, site of the first Jedi Temple.

Events taking place after the destruction of Starkiller Base are then referred to as “ASI,” After Starkiller Incident, encompassing the events of The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker.

Starring Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Kelly Marie Tran, Anthony Daniels, Keri Russell, Richard E. Grant, Naomi Ackie, Domhnall Gleeson, Joonas Suotamo, Ian McDiarmid, Billy Dee Williams, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is now in theaters.