{"id":466175,"date":"2026-05-25T12:41:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T12:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/466175\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T12:41:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T12:41:14","slug":"every-theatrical-star-wars-movie-ranked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/466175\/","title":{"rendered":"Every Theatrical ‘Star Wars’ Movie, Ranked"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s something you don\u2019t see every day. Something no one on the internet has ever thought to do. With a new Star Wars movie in theaters, the first in seven years<\/a>, we\u2019ve decided to put it up against the rest of the series in what we\u2019re calling a ranking of \u201cStar Wars\u201d movies.<\/p>\n

All kidding aside, while ranking Star Wars movies<\/a> is a pastime fans have enjoyed since there was a second Star Wars movie, we here at io9 haven\u2019t done one in a long, long time. If ever<\/a>. So, the team put their heads together, and all agreed that this list, right here, is the definitive one<\/a>. At least among us.<\/p>\n

So sit back, grab your lightsaber, and let\u2019s rank all 13 theatrical Star Wars movies.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Empire Strikes Back \u2013 Lucasfilm 1. The Empire Strikes Back <\/p>\n

Really, is there any other way to go at the top of the list? Probably not. The Empire Strikes Back is just everything you love about Star Wars<\/a>, on screen for the first time, capturing your imagination and never letting go. It\u2019s bold, it\u2019s exciting, it\u2019s emotional, it\u2019s incredible.<\/p>\n

\"Starwarsnewhope\u00a9 Lucasfilm 2. A New Hope <\/p>\n

The only film that we think even comes close to challenging Empire for the number one spot is this one, the number one Star Wars movie. Without A New Hope, none of the rest would exist. Every time you rewatch it, it sucks you in with its scope, ambition, and imagination. You almost forget just how many places the story goes. How epic it all becomes. It\u2019s a perfect movie that, when compared to its sequel, is just the one you might rewatch a little bit less.<\/p>\n

\"LeiaLeia and Wicket \u2013 Lucasfilm 3. Return of the Jedi <\/p>\n

After those first two films, the controversy of this list starts to rise exponentially with each pick, starting here. For some, ranking Return of the Jedi third is a no-brainer. It completes the story told by the previous two in a wholly satisfying way. There\u2019s amazing action, character beats, locations, creatures, all of it. Star Wars as a whole gets better because of everything in this movie. But, of course, it does get a little kiddie at the end and lacks a bit of the complexity of the previous two. We love it unabashedly, but others might rank it a little lower. We do not.<\/p>\n

\"LukeLuke Skywalker in The Last Jedi \u2013 Lucasfilm 4. The Last Jedi <\/p>\n

And here we go. *Dodges blaster fire* When it comes to The Last Jedi, there are primarily two paths of thought. There are those of us who think it\u2019s a Star Wars masterpiece<\/a> that boldly attempted to infuse new ideas into a series that desperately needed them. That took risks and reaped big rewards. Then there are others who think all of that sucked because Leia flew through the sky, Poe Dameron made some jokes, and Luke Skywalker had the most poetic, heroic ending ever. You either love it or you hate it. And we love it.<\/p>\n

\"Star\u00a9 Lucasfilm 5. Rogue One <\/p>\n

No Star Wars movie since the first one did what Rogue One: A Star Wars Story<\/a>\u00a0did: introduce an (almost) entirely new cast of characters, make you care about them, and then put them through the wringer. It told a crucial story that fans had been talking about for years, and put human (and non-human) faces to it. Even though they\u2019re only in one movie, we love Jyn Erso, Bodhi Rook, Chirrut \u00cemwe, Baze Malbus, K-2SO, and the rest. That\u2019s a testament to the power of Rogue One. Plus, it gave us two seasons of Andor, which helps its ranking considerably.<\/p>\n

\"Force\u00a9 Lucasfilm 6. The Force Awakens <\/p>\n

When Disney brought Star Wars back in 2015, there were a million ways it could go. The choice, ultimately, was to basically just retell the story of A New Hope\u00a0with a seemingly random person on a desert planet who gets sucked into an adventure aboard the Millennium Falcon, taking them to a large base run by the bad guys, with the reveal that they\u2019re the answer to the galaxy\u2019s problems. And guess what? It worked. The Force Awakens<\/a> didn\u2019t reinvent the franchise, but it gave us great new characters and reminded us why we love Star Wars in the first place.<\/p>\n

\"Star\u00a9 Lucasfilm 7. Revenge of the Sith <\/p>\n

Oh, right. The prequel movies. Once again, when it comes to the first three films in the Skywalker Saga, there\u2019s a pretty widely accepted ranking with the third film, this one, at the top of the list. Mostly, that\u2019s because we get to see Anakin and Obi-Wan at the height of their powers, and after two movies eking towards the main event, we finally got to see what we\u2019d all been waiting for: the fall of the Jedi and birth of Darth Vader. It\u2019s just a massive, massive movie in the history of Star Wars, with the performances and a finale to match.<\/p>\n

\"StarA crucial meeting \u2013 Lucasfilm 8. The Phantom Menace <\/p>\n

The Phantom Menace is a flawed film. There are so many things you can point at and be like, \u201cThat\u2019s bad.\u201d Trade Federations, Jar Jar Binks, etc. But it also has so much undeniably Star Wars magic in it<\/a>. Darth Maul, podracing, Qui-Gon Jinn, you name it. The good stuff very much outweighs the bad, and for that reason, we put it here.<\/p>\n

\"Solo\u00a9 Lucasfilm 9. Solo <\/p>\n

Look, we like Solo: A Star Wars Story<\/a>. It\u2019s a whole movie about maybe the most fun character in the entire series. And thanks to it largely being from director Ron Howard, it mostly works as a solid, straightforward adventure story. It doesn\u2019t challenge us. It doesn\u2019t really make us feel too much. But it\u2019s fun and reminds us why we like Star Wars in a way that expands the galaxy and its mythology. It does the bare minimum.<\/p>\n

\"Mandalorian\u00a9 Lucasfilm 10. The Mandalorian and Grogu <\/p>\n

Yes, unfortunately, the latest film in the Star Wars saga ranks way down here on the list<\/a>. Why? Well, it\u2019s similar to Solo in that it\u2019s a very straightforward, entertaining film. Which is fine. But, unlike Solo, where that showed our main characters achieve cool, big goals and changes, this film doesn\u2019t do that. It\u2019s just a story in the Star Wars universe. It\u2019s not bad. It just doesn\u2019t live up to the films above it.<\/p>\n

\"\"Padme and Anakin \u2013 Lucasfilm 11. Attack of the Clones <\/p>\n

Each Star Wars trilogy has one entry that\u2019s obviously not as good as the rest, and for the prequels, it\u2019s Attack of the Clones. There are lots of things to like about Attack of the Clones, like Yoda fighting, Jango Fett, its cliffhanger ending, and more. But compared to not just the other two prequels, but Star Wars as a whole, it\u2019s just a little flat. The performances aren\u2019t quite there. The story isn\u2019t super compelling. It\u2019s not a film we hate, it\u2019s just not as cohesive and satisfying as the others.<\/p>\n

\"RiseLucasfilm 12. The Rise of Skywalker <\/p>\n

Ben Solo. Lando. Wedge. Rey embracing the Force. There are definitely good things in The Rise of Skywalker. But there are also bad things. Lots of them<\/a>. This is just such a wild pivot from the previous film, and such a cowardly conclusion to the series, that we can\u2019t help but still feel stung by it. There\u2019s no regard for stakes, the ending is dissatisfying, and we\u2019re still trying to come up with a reason for its title. It\u2019s just, almost without competition, the worst Star Wars movie\u2026 in live action.<\/p>\n

\"The\u00a9 Lucasfilm 13. The Clone Wars <\/p>\n

To be perfectly honest, Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie almost feels like it didn\u2019t happen. Yes, it\u2019s the official introduction of Ahsoka Tano into the Star Wars universe, but in the years that followed, Dave Filoni took the pieces here and made things that were so much better than this introductory film. As a result, it has become largely forgotten. We don\u2019t like The Rise of Skywalker, but we will never, ever forget it. The Clone Wars can\u2019t even do that. We\u2019re glad it exists for everything that followed, but as a movie, it\u2019s pretty bad.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s something you don\u2019t see every day. Something no one on the internet has ever thought to do.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,61,60,270,2140],"class_list":["post-466175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies","tag-star-wars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}