Pursuing Veritas

In the past, I’ve ranked movies and Pixar films (not once, but twice) to varying degrees of response. But as a culture, we’re always ranking things. Watch ESPN, listen to your favorite podcast, scroll through a few TikToks, and you’ll almost certainly encounter someone ranking something. So this summer, I’m casting my own pearls before swine and offering some of my own totally subjective rankings. Enjoy—and let me know where I’m wrong in the comments!

Star Wars Rankings

Few fandoms take themselves and their opinions as seriously as the Star Wars universe. Half the time, if feels like you can’t be a Star Wars fan unless you’re willing to have strong opinions about which movies (and trilogies) are the best and worst. So, true to form, I’ll offer some opinions here.

Some framework before we dive in: First, this isn’t detailed analysis. I’ll buy you a beer/coffee sometime and we chat about that. Second, I will not break down shows by season or anything like that. This is by the whole body of work. Third, my rankings include everything produced that appears on the Wikipedia page for Star Wars. Don’t come at me with more EU or Legends content please. (Though I’ll give a shoutout to my man Thrawn.) Finally, Star Wars also has the added layer of having non-canonical productions, as well as a canon within a canon (= the nine episodes of the Skywalker Saga). You’ll note that—with few exceptions, those movies get a bump up. Because let’s be real, those are where Star Wars fandom begins.

The Extended Universe

When you have 38 productions (some of which contain multiple seasons), not every story is going to be a home run. Some aren’t event going to be singles. Sometimes, you’re going to ground into a double play and ruin your team’s day. In all frankness, these are Star Wars stories that we might be better off without. There are okay moments, but let’s be serious, we don’t need to watch these again.

Star Wars Holiday Special, The Ewok Adventure, Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, Droids, Ewoks, Galactic Pals, Zen, Fun with Nubs, Visions, Tales, Young Jedi Adventures, Blips, Forces of Destiny, Galaxy of Adventures, Roll Out, Galaxy of Creatures, The Acolyte

World Building

These stories have their fun moments, but are lacking in critical areas of storytelling, development, or continuity with the rest of the Star Wars universe. I try to watch charitably, so I’ll be the first to say that there are moments (and music) in these parts of the Star Wars story that are enjoyable. But in the end, these movies and shows fall short.

t-20. The Last Jedi (Ep VIII)

t-20. The Rise of Skywalker (Ep XI)

19. Skeleton Crew

18. Book of Boba Fett

17. Resistance

16. Solo: A Star Wars Story

15. Ahsoka

14. Rebels

Now this is Star Wars

These productions are widely enjoyable, engaging, and entertaining. These feel like Star Wars and (especially for young viewers, which has always been the main market emphasis for Lucasfilm) are highly enjoyable content. In practice, this the first category I’m excited to show my kids.

13. The Bad Batch

12. Attack of the Clones (Ep II)

11. Obi-Wan Kenobi

10. The Mandalorian

9. The Clone Wars

8. The Force Awakens (Ep VII)

7. The Phantom Menace (Ep I)

6. Andor

Best of the Best

The top tier. The crème of the crop. The best of the best. The rankings that you’re really here to argue with me about. Some minor backstory: I watched the OG trilogy with my dad before the prequels came out and I was hooked. I remember being unable to sleep the night after watching New Hope for the first time. My mind was blown. And then we watched Empire soon after and I could barely contain myself. And the rest, as they say, is history.

5. Revenge of the Sith (Ep III)

4. A New Hope (Ep IV)

3. Return of the Jedi (Ep V)

2. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

1. Empire Strikes Back (Ep V)