May the 4th Be with You!
Obviously, it’s time to return to a galaxy far, far away for all things Star Wars. Every May 4th is Star Wars Day.
How do you celebrate the greatest series of movies of all time? A movie marathon, of course!
Now you have to ask yourself one of the philosophically hardest questions of all time. It ranks right up there with if the chicken or the egg came first. Or if that tree falling in the forest makes a sound.
What order do you watch the Star Wars movies now that there are so many, including prequels, sequels, and offshoot one-shots?
We’re going to answer that question!
If you’re watching it with friends.
This question is kind of easy if you’re watching them yourself or with like-minded individuals relative to your own age. Really. The answer is watch episodes 4-6.
Done.
Easy.
They’re the ones you grew up with. They’re the classics. They also happen to be the best. Force Awakens may be higher up on the highest grossing movies of all-time list at this point, but that doesn’t account for inflation. New Hope would kick its butt if the gross sales attained were converted to today’s dollar. So, you and your buddies… 4, 5, and 6. It’s that easy.
If you’re watching it with your kids.
What do you do if you’re introducing your little buddies to the Star Wars franchise?
Your kids.
Your progeny.
How do you bring them into the world of Star Wars? Now, that’s a harder question.
First you have to wait until they’re old enough to at least kind of “get it”. We started New Hope once, when my boys were still pretty young, and got bombarded with so many questions that it was painful.
Movie stopped. (Because life is supposed to be painful, but not THAT painful.)
Then, I planned their introduction into the world of Star Wars to come in conjunction with the release of Force Awakens. 2015 was to be the “Year of Star Wars”. Until we could watch them, I was actively avoiding all things Star Wars to keep my boys in the dark. We needed to really experience the movies together.
So, no spoilers. But, it’s hard to avoid spoilers for a plot-line that the entire world knows. In the toy aisles of the big box stores, I’d run past the 12 inch tall Vader figures, with my boys asking questions.
“Who’s that guy?”
“I have no idea,” I’d say, turning the corner and not looking back.
When ready, we’d watch 4-6, 1-3…with no particular order planned just yet. We’d throw in the Ewok movies. We would NOT throw in the Star Wars Christmas special. The year would culminate with a big screen venture to see The Force Awakens. And Christmas that year? Totally filled with Star Wars toys.
That year, I thought about it. (read:stressed over it.)
-Show it to them in the order I’d watched it?
-Show it sequentially?
I googled to find opinions. I ended up following the order that all true Star Wars fans have heard of on the Internet, the Machete Order.
Machete Order?
Now, if I read the Machete Order correctly, you can leave out Phantom Menace entirely. We all know that movie had problems. No getting around that. But, if that darn kid had been 4-5 years older, you took out some of the droning on and on about politics and midichlorians, and…cut JarJar (a lot!), it wouldn’t have been that bad of a movie.
(Yes, I know I just talked about quite a bit of the movie. But, how can fandom LOVE Qui Gon Jinn…but hate that movie?)
There were problems, but there was a lot to love. The fight between Qui Gon, Obi Wan, and Darth Maul alone was worth the price of admission!
So, digressing, on to the machete order.
You start, as you should with the wide-eyed, adventure-craving Luke Skywalker in New Hope. Then you watch Empire…but before moving to Return of the Jedi… you leave it at that cliff hanger. Luke just found out he was Darth Vader’s son!! Han got imprisoned and taken away in carbonite!! PHWEW! While the rest of the world had to wait 3 years to know what happened, our instant gratification kids can jump right to the next one. Well, not so fast. You insert the prequels at this point. They learn the backstory of the best screen villain ever and find that he does have some redeeming qualities. And, they find that he is indeed telling the truth about being Luke’s father.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Then on to Return of the Jedi to see how it all turns out.
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That was before Force Awakens. That was before…Rogue One.
With the new sequels, episodes 7-9…they’re the continuing story of the Skywalkers…even if the Skywalkers are barely in them. But, that’s another digression for another time. Either way, Skywalkers? Check. So, it makes sense for them to come after episode 6. Machete order still works.
Rogue One is a different story. Granted, it slides PERFECTLY into New Hope, but do you watch it before New Hope? If you do all the other movies in the fandomly-accepted Machete order…would Rogue One come first?
I should think NOT.
No Star Wars movie should come before New Hope.
That should be the movie with which everyone enters into that far off galaxy. Anything else just feels wrong. It’s the foundation of all the others. It’s pure adventure. Pure fun. So, it has to come first. Rogue One, then? I guess it can come after Sith before you return to regularly scheduled programming back to Return of the Jedi.
If nothing else, it shows the continuation of the prequels’ theme of showing Anakin’s fall into the dark side. While Sith ends with him becoming Vader, Rogue One shows him at his evil pinnacle just before New Hope.
Our Official Order to Watch Them:
New Hope
Empire Strikes Back
Phantom Menace
Attack of the Clones
Revenge of the Sith
Rogue One
Return of the Jedi
Force Awakens
Last Jedi
Episode 9
Han Solo?…who knows. Maybe we can find out where he fits in after watching his solo adventure on May 25th.
Until then, remember May the 4th Be with You, but beware the following day – because it’s the Revenge of the 5th!