A couple of years ago, a friend of mine told me she wanted to watch all the Star Wars films for the first time. I was delighted, and plans were made. It was decided that we would watch all the films and all the live action series.
I made the decision that we would watch it all in chronological order. As someone who has seen all the Star Wars films multiple times, it’s my preferred way to watch it–as one epic linear tale. I reasoned that as she already knew the “I am your father” twist, the dramatic impact of that was lessened and didn’t need to be prioritized. I did make it clear that the original films came out in the 70s and 80s, so would look older than the other films and series, and we agreed to proceed.
Of course, there are many valuable points to be made about the story inconsistencies that pop up when watching the prequels first and then the originals. Surprisingly, none of these inconsistencies were an issue for us, mainly because our watch took well over a year as we’re both busy (and Andor takes a while to get through if you only meet up once or twice a month.) After all that time, it’s difficult for a new viewer to remember the small inconsistencies like the fact that Obi-Wan actually did know R2-D2 before A New Hope.
However, I did still find that watching the films and series in chronological order hurt the original trilogy in other ways I never would have considered. I’ll list my findings below, starting with what my friend thought of each film and series as we went through.
The Prequel Trilogy
I decided not to start with The Acolyte, as it’s mostly irrelevant to the Skywalker Saga. Instead, we started with The Phantom Menace. We watched it on a sunny Saturday morning, which I think helped. The slightly grainier visual quality made it feel like a 90s film that you’d stick with if it popped on the TV over the weekend and you’ve nothing better to do, giving it a slightly nostalgic feel. A little like how it would feel to watch Home Alone for the first time as an adult in your 30s; it’s fun but you’re very aware that your friends all watched it when they were kids, and there’s a cultural importance attached to it that’s keeping you engaged.
For what it’s worth, my friend absolutely loved it. I’m not sure if she really cared about the disputes around the taxation of trade routes, but the podrace, the Battle of Naboo and the Darth Maul fight at the end left her pumped for more. She even watched the first season of Tales of the Jedi by herself directly after (I encouraged her to do so as it would give her greater knowledge of both Qui-Gon and Count Dooku) and really enjoyed that too.
She enjoyed Attack of the Clones too, particularly the Battle of Geonosis and the confrontation with Count Dooku and Yoda (as a New Zealander, she also appreciated Temuera Morrison playing a large role). However, it wasn’t until we watched Revenge of the Sith that I got a hint of how she really felt about the trilogy’s middle film.
By the time you get to the final act of Revenge of the Sith, you’ve seen Count Dooku get killed, General Grievous introduced and killed, Palpatine revealed as Darth Sidious, Anakin turned to the dark side and Order 66 issued. When Mace Windu died, my friend turned around to me and said “Wow, load’s happening in this film, eh?”. I got the impression that she felt Attack of the Clones was a bit slower by comparison, which is a commonly held opinion.
At the end of the prequels, she declared that Revenge of the Sith was the best of the three films she’d seen so far. We opted to skip The Clone Wars as getting through all seven seasons would likely take a year in itself and she isn’t particularly interested in animation. I still recommended a collection of Ahsoka-heavy episodes from the series to watch by herself, so she knew who the character was by the time we get to Ahsoka. As far as I’m aware, she still hasn’t watched them.
The Disney Prequels
For the same reasons as The Clone Wars, we sadly skipped The Bad Batch and Tales of the Empire (Tales of the Underworld hadn’t come out yet, but that would have been skipped too).
That meant the next one on the docket was Solo! She really enjoyed the film, appreciating the lighter tone compared to the prequel trilogy. There was plenty of laughter and she declared this was her favorite so far as it was the most fun, which is fair; that film has plenty of gags and quips and a genuine sense of adventure that the prequels don’t have. I think she would have signed a #MakeSolo2Happen petition if I’d asked her!
Next up was Obi-Wan Kenobi. In the interest of time, I suggested that she watch it by herself. She had a sense of momentum at this point and watched it all over the course of a week. From what I remember, she enjoyed the series, particularly the showdowns between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan, though she didn’t offer much more insight than that.
Cassian Andor (Diego Liuna) in Lucasfilm’s ANDOR Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. ©2025 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
That freed us up to get going on Andor. We watched this one together and I had hoped to get through Season 1 just in time before Season 2 started coming out, but we only finished the first season shortly after the Season 2 finale had aired. Due to schedule clashes, it took us most of 2025 to watch both seasons of Andor.
Thankfully, it was worth the wait. Though she had to get used to the show’s slower pace (I tried to organize watches of three episodes at a time to match the release cadence, but sometimes that wasn’t possible and we’d only have time to watch one or two), she was thrilled when each story arc came to a head; particularly the Narkina-5 prison break and the Ferrix revolt, and she was fully locked in to everything from the Ghorman Massacre onwards.
However, Andor threw up a surprising issue in this activity. We watched Rogue One pretty soon after finishing Andor, and while she appreciated the narrative throughline provided by the returning Director Krennic and Cassian, she was shocked that every hero died by the end of the film, though she thought the decision to kill them was cool. She was also beginning to see just why the Death Star had been so hyped, and why it has become so iconic in pop culture.
However, the film’s pacing gave her a bit of whiplash. At this point, my friend had gotten so used to the slow build up and long-form storytelling of Andor (and Obi-Wan Kenobi before that to a lesser degree), that the pacing of the next few films took her by surprise. Rogue One itself does struggle with irregular pacing, but after 24 episodes of slow dramatic build-up in the series, it felt as though everything was happening too quickly in the film. It’s almost as if it would have been more natural to tell the story of that film over a few more episodes of Andor, rather than as a film itself (obviously that’s not possible, but it was interesting to note).
She turned to me multiple times throughout the movie to say something along the lines of : “Wow, everything’s happening so quick in this film isn’t it?”
The Original Trilogy
That brings us to the original trilogy. It’s worth pointing out that watching all this in chronological order did provide some benefits, but ultimately I think the negatives outweighed the positives.
My friend enjoyed A New Hope. Though she saw Obi-Wan’s death coming as soon as he stepped onto the Death Star, it still had a far greater emotional impact than it would have if we had started with this film. Watching this character through so many stages of his life with Ewan McGregor meant she had a proper attachment to him, and that wouldn’t have been the case if she were watching this without knowing his life story.
She was also saddened when I informed her that Bail Organa and his wife were now dead after the Death Star blew up Alderaan. Following the deaths of all the Rogue One heroes, she noted with surprise once again that everyone was getting killed off; a sentiment I found quietly amusing, considering the very real problem many people have with Star Wars often bringing characters back from the dead.
Unfortunately though, I think her enjoyment of the film was tinged with disappointment. After the best part of a year watching Andor knowing that the big terrible Death Star was coming, she was really surprised to see that it was destroyed in the first film of the original trilogy. All of this build up, and just like that it was over. Sure, it destroyed a planet, but she had expected the battle station to be a huge threat across the entire trilogy.
If we had started with A New Hope, then this simply wouldn’t have been an issue. But watching the prequel series first created a false expectation in her head, one to which the original film was never going to live up. It was the pacing problem teased in Rogue One writ large. We’d gone from 24 episodes of slow build to two films where it felt like huge events were happening in a short space of time. I suspect she felt everything was a bit rushed in comparison.
On to The Empire Strikes Back, which of course she thought was great. I’m not sure where it ranks in her personal favorites, but she could see why everyone tends to regard it as the best Star Wars film. Though I think she did question Yoda’s odd behavior at first, she was satisfied with my head-canon explanation that he was testing Luke’s character before revealing his true identity. She loved everything else about the film.
She also loved Return of the Jedi. She’d been asking me when the Ewoks were going to turn up for ages. She told me that she remembered her brothers watching Star Wars when she was little, and seeing the cute little teddy bears running around whenever she walked past the TV. She was entertained whenever they were on-screen, and was enthralled at the Battle of Endor and the lightsaber battle between Luke and Vader.
I had kept the reveal of the second Death Star quiet in the naive hope that it would help her get over the disappointment of the first one, but after an initial sense of surprise that there was another Death Star, it didn’t register any excitement from her.
While she was surprisingly excited to see Vader take his helmet off at the end, she didn’t exactly spend time musing over Vader’s redemption arc afterwards, which perhaps flies in the face of one of the reasons you’d watch all this chronologically in the first place. While one of the goals of the prequel trilogy was to present Darth Vader as a tragic figure, his journey didn’t seem to figure too much in her mind by the end.
Was Watching Star Wars in Chronological Order Worth it?
In the end, I think I’d have to say no. If I ever have the opportunity to introduce someone else to Star Wars, I would do it in release order to a point (original trilogy first, then prequel trilogy, then the shows plus Solo and Rogue One).
While my friend felt a much stronger attachment to Obi-Wan and was reeling from the deaths of the Rogue One heroes by the time we got to A New Hope, the hype around the Death Star fell flat on its face and she felt that all three original films ran at a much faster pace than she was used to after watching Andor and Obi-Wan Kenobi, which felt jarring to her.
Watching in release order preserves the Death Star’s image as a frightening tool of destruction and negates the pacing problem that we found in chronological order, as my friend wouldn’t have had Andor to compare. Of course there are other reasons why you perhaps shouldn’t introduce Star Wars to someone in chronological order, but here I found pacing and the hype around the Death Star to be compelling reasons on their own.
Watching Star Wars in chronological order is best done after you’ve already watched them in release order, which is arguably how they were supposed to be watched. Chronological order is still my preferred way to watch them all, but I had the benefit of seeing them in release order first. After this experience, I’ve concluded that that’s probably how everyone should do it.
Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.