Films · 11 events
Star Wars chronology and timeline
The chronology of the galaxy starts at Episode I. The theatrical timeline starts at Episode IV. Both rulers sit on this spine.
1977 is not year one
The Star Wars timeline most rooms entered in 1977. The chronology of that galaxy does not. A New Hope opened on 25 May 1977 and, in the story, sits at year 0 — the Battle of Yavin, from which the official calendar counts forward and back. Enter by release and you meet Luke before child Anakin. Enter by in-world order and you meet Naboo’s trade dispute before the Death Star.
Solo and Rogue One have no episode number. On the inner ruler they slot between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. On the street they fall in the middle of the sequel trilogy, in 2018 and 2016.
What this line covers
The nine numbered episodes and the two theatrical anthologies. Series, books, comics and the holiday special stay off: each one wants another column. Inner dates use BBY and ABY, the saga’s own calendar, with a plain label beside them.
Saga order
Fall of the Republic
32 to 19 BBY. Anakin, Padmé, the Council, and an Empire that does not yet use the word.
Episode I — The Phantom Menace
Release: 19 May 1999
32 BBY. Naboo under a Trade Federation blockade. Anakin is nine, Palpatine is still a senator, the Jedi still trust the Council. The 1999 film is the start of the story and the fourth in the cinema queue.
Start here and you meet midi-chlorians before Luke’s blue blade. Start in 1977 and you only find this disc twenty-two years later, already knowing the name Vader.
Episode II — Attack of the Clones
Release: 16 May 2002
22 BBY. The Republic orders an army. Anakin and Padmé marry at the end, in a secret the original trilogy’s audience already watched collapse. Geonosis is the first Clone Wars battle in theatres — the series later filled the three years after.
Episode III — Revenge of the Sith
Release: 19 May 2005
19 BBY. Order 66, the birth of Luke and Leia, the mask. It is the film where the two rulers stare hardest: the end of the Republic is the prologue 1977 never showed, released in 2005 for a room that already knew the boy in the desert.
Between trilogies
Han, a desertion, and the first Death Star before Luke.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Release: 25 May 2018
Around 10 BBY. Lando, the Falcon, the name Solo. The 2018 film fills a stretch the original trilogy only named. On the spine it sits between a young Empire and Rogue One. In theatres it arrived after The Last Jedi, when the room had already watched Han die in 2015.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Release: 16 Dec 2016
0 BBY, minutes before A New Hope. The Death Star plans, Scarif, the transmission Leia holds at the start of 1977. It is the only film on this list that touches the next one with no years of slack.
It opened on 16 December 2016, between The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. The anthology glued to the original arrived in the middle of the sequel.
The original trilogy
0 to 4 ABY. Luke, Leia, Vader, Endor.
Episode IV — A New Hope
Release: 25 May 1977
0 ABY. Tatooine, the Death Star, Yavin. The film that invented the calendar the others use. Release: 25 May 1977. In the shop it is first; in the story it is sixth on this list.
Every argument about “watch order” exists because of this disc. Without it there would be no release ruler to set against the saga.
Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back
Release: 21 May 1980
3 ABY. Hoth, Bespin, “I am your father”. Release: 21 May 1980. In-world and in the shop it is the middle of the original trilogy — one of the few points where the two rulers do not fight.
Episode VI — Return of the Jedi
Release: 25 May 1983
4 ABY. Endor, the second Death Star, the pyre. Release: 25 May 1983. It closes the original trilogy. On the inner calendar thirty years still remain until Jakku.
The Resistance
34 and 35 ABY. A generation later, the same war under other names.
Episode VII — The Force Awakens
Release: 18 Dec 2015
34 ABY. Jakku, the Resistance, Rey. Release: 18 December 2015. In the shop it is the saga’s return after ten years. In the story a whole generation has passed — the forward jump the prequels never dared.
Episode VIII — The Last Jedi
Release: 15 Dec 2017
34 ABY, hours after The Force Awakens. Ahch-To, Canto Bight, the salt. Release: 15 December 2017. On the spine there is almost no slack against Episode VII. In theatres Rogue One had already filled the gap.
Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker
Release: 20 Dec 2019
35 ABY. Exegol, the name Palpatine back on the poster. Release: 20 December 2019. It closes both rulers on this page: last in the story, last in the cinema queue on this list.
See also the timeline index and films.