The Star Wars universe has been a celebrated mainstay in the film industry for over four decades. If you're wondering where to watch George Lucas' sci-fi fantasy online, we've got you covered with a complete streaming guide to every movie in the franchise. This includes detailed information on where to watch Star Wars movies in the United States.
There have been eleven theatrically released live-action Star Wars films and for the sake of this article, we will solely be focusing on the 9 “Skywalker Saga” titles and the 2 “anthology” films. These can be divided into four categories:
The SkyWalker Saga
The Original Trilogy (1977 - 1983)
Created by George Lucas, audiences were introduced to “a galaxy far, far away” in 1977 with the original film aptly titled Star Wars prior to its retroactively added subtitle of Episode IV: A New Hope. Its following sequels, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, released in 1980 and 1983 respectively and made up the original Star Wars trilogy which amassed incredible success both financially and with critics and audiences alike. The original trilogy earned over $1.7 billion at the worldwide box office and continues to be revered as one of the best film trilogies of all time. The beloved trio of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo led the trilogy to its success while Darth Vader remains one of Hollywood’s most iconic movie villains.
The prequel trilogy (1999 - 2005)
From 1999-2005, a prequel trilogy was released with each entry directed by Lucas. He previously directed the original Star Wars film while Irvin Kershner and Lawrence Kasdan directed Empire and Jedi respectively. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace released in 1999, Episode II – Attack of the Clones released in 2002 and its third chapter, Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, concluded in 2005.
The prequels depicted the rise of Darth Vader as a young Anakin Skywalker and featured other beloved franchise characters including Queen Padmé Amidala, Qui-Gon Jinn, a young Obi-Wan Kenobi and the menacing Darth Maul. Although the prequels did not receive as much critical acclaim as their counterparts (minus Revenge of the Sith which has a 79% RottenTomatoes score), they went on to earn over $2.5 billion worldwide and their visual effects were considered groundbreaking at the time, ushering in a new age of computer-generated imagery.
The sequel trilogy (2015 - 2019)
Following Lucas selling over his ownership of Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012, a new sequel trilogy was announced. The first entry titled Star Wars: The Force Awakens released ten years after Revenge of the Sith and experienced immense financial and critical success as audiences were clamoring for new Star Wars theatrical projects. The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker released in 2017 and 2019 respectively with the entire trilogy earning over a whopping $4.4 billion worldwide.
Anthology Star Wars movies
One year after The Force Awakens’ domination at the box office, Star Wars’ first anthology installment and prequel to 1977’s original movie, Rogue One, released in theaters. Rogue One is widely considered one of the best new era Star Wars movies as it went on to earn over $1 billion at the worldwide box office and featured a spin-off TV series, Andor, focused on Cassian Andor for Disney+ six years after its release. solo: A Star Wars Story was the second anthology film released in 2018 and although Han Solo continues to remain one of the most popular Star Wars characters, evidently this film focusing on his backstory was not of interest to the public as it earned $393 million on a reported $275-300 million budget.
How to Watch Star Wars Movies in Release Order
The Star Wars saga remains one of the most lucrative franchises in Hollywood history. When it comes to deciding how to watch the films, there are two options. The first one is to follow the order in which they were theatrically released:
- Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)
- Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
- Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983)
- Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)
- Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002)
- Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
- Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
How to Watch Star Wars Movies in Chronological Order
If you’d prefer to watch the story of the galaxy far, far, away unfold in order of the sequence of events, check out the following below. We've compiled a streaming guide that shows you where to watch every Star Wars movie online.
