Please note that for the most part, with the exception of the last two film orders, I have not included the EU, the last two orders focus on EU as it is relevant to the films.
Author's Intent AKA Chronological Order
1. Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace
2. Star Wars: Episode II: The Attack of the Clones
3. Star Wars: Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith
4. Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope
5. Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
6. Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
This is the viewing order that George Lucas regards as the closest to his vision. Here we approach Star Wars as the story of Anakin Skywalker’s destiny to bring balance to the Force over a period of two generations of the Skywalker family. We see his fall to the dark side and his eventual redemption, all while the Republic is turned into the Empire, but liberated again. The upcoming sequel trilogy will undoubtedly act as a continuation or epilogue to this saga.
Personally, I have no problem with this order, with no grudges against the Prequels myself or against Lucas, but some have argued that it ruins so much twists in Episode V if we know Anakin is Vader beforehand and I know some people tend to want things to be a surprise. And then there are trilogy fans who worry about People getting exposed to the Prequels first.....
Production Order
1. Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope
2. Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
3. Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
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4. Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace
5. Star Wars: Episode II: The Attack of the Clones
6. Star Wars: Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith
Another order is to watch the Star Wars Saga in production order. That way key plot twists, namely Vader being Luke's father, would be preserved and this method focuses on the narrative of Star Wars as an epic adventure about a Rebel Alliance battling an evil despotic Empire. To trilogy fans, the so-called "good stuff" can be taken care of first and I feel if you want to promote a narrative critical of the Prequels with how you expose Star Wars to your friends, this is the most open order, because I feel it can let people decide on their own if the Prequels were good or not and I feel that simply blocking people from seeing the Prequels would not allow for fair debate over it's merits. Rather, people would wonder why people complain about a specific movie if they are not allowed to see it. Putting the Prequels on can let people decide for themselves wheather these movies are really that bad or not(personally I don't take sides in this debate).
A key problem I feel is that if the movies are shown this way it might perpetuate the image of Star Wars as two trilogies and not one saga. This order I feel is often created to incite specific tensions or specific images of Star Wars as a "good" and "bad" Saga over one saga.
Trilogy Order
(NOTHING HAPPENED BEFORE HERE, IGNORE THE THREE TERRIBLE MOVIES THAT AREN'T REALLY STAR WARS)
1. Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope
2. Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
3. Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
But what if you don't particularly like the Prequels? People who watch Star Wars this way angrily dismiss the Prequels as a slap in the face to the “good trilogy”, often citing RedLetterMedia or some Youtube reviewer, or celerity icons like Simon Pegg. They tend to only focus on the Original Trilogy and it's moments, and how the Prequels tend to "pale" in contrast to the Originals. There are two branches of thought regarding Original-only viewing. This school of thought implies at least indifference to the Special Edition changes, or not caring about them as long as you get to watch ONLY the Originals. For the other one, see the "Purist" Order
OR
1(or 1+2, or 1+2+3): Any decent fanedit of the Prequels(or series of fanedits)
4. Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope
5. Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
6. Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Those more leinant torwards the Prequels from the perspective of ideas tend to grab either a fan-edit or a condensed version of all three movies, most of these editions tend to take out specific "glaring" points in the movies or focus them on one single theme. Many of these edits are on youtube for those that want to find them.
Purist Order:
1. Star Wars (1977 edition)
2. The Empire Strikes Back (1980 edition)
3. Return of the Jedi (1983 edition)
Ah yes, the most hardcore trilogy fan worldview and the last of the three perspectives reccomended by the media. The Special Editions have caused controversy with Han shooting last not first, the use of CGI or "too much stuff", or Vader shouting NOOOOOOOOOOOO, the list goes on and on and on. In a sense, some would perceive Lucas to have "tainted" the Special Editions and long for the good old days.
A negative for this order is if people are trying to show this to their friends, most people don't care about the changes I feel outside those that grew up with them. They might even find specific effects dated. At the very least, it should be that the original versions be shown alongside the special editions, that way even if there is a plan to completely reject the Prequels, at least there would be a debate about the merits of the Special Editions themselves.
I will further admit that while I prefer Darth Vader to not yell NOOOOOO and Han shooting first, I feel that some of the changes were necessary and frankly, after seeing the Clone Wars, I believe it justified to change Anakin's force ghost at the end. Through to be fair, Lucas should have kept the original copies intact.
Furthermore, outside from torrenting or getting a "despecialized" edition dubiously, it's pretty damn hard to get the O-OT.
Machete/Flashback Order
1. Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope
2. Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
3. Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace
4. Star Wars: Episode II: The Attack of the Clones
5. Star Wars: Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith
6. Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
OR
1. Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope
2. Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
(THERE IS NO FLASHBACK BEFORE THIS BECAUSE IT WAS CRAP or IRREVERENT)
3. Star Wars: Episode II: The Attack of the Clones
4. Star Wars: Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith
5. Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
For those who don't want to ruin the twist, this method, proposed by Rod Hilton, is the best way to watch the movies. Especially if it is believed that the Originals do more to establish the tone of the Saga.
At the end of Empire we get the startling revelation that Darth Vader is none other than Luke’s father. However, in this method, before we unveil the climactic finale, we shall take a look back at Anakin Skywalker as a young man being trained by Obi-Wan Kenobi before his eventual turn to the Dark Side. In a shocking flashback sequence we see the truth that Darth Vader is indeed Luke’s father as well as Leia’s. We see the origins of the Empire, the fall of the Republic, and the apparent annihilation of the Jedi Order.
After this dark revelation we witness the triumphant conclusion of good over evil.
Some trilogy fans(including Rod Hilton) or PT fans who don't like Episode I tend to omit that film from the order due to either it being "bad" or "irrevelent". Make of this what you will because again, I don't take sides in the debate over the quality of the trilogies.
NOTE: The following two are not meant for showing if you want to finish everything by the 18th.
The Star Wars Grand Canonical Saga
1. Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace
2. Star Wars: Episode II: The Attack of the Clones
3. Star Wars: The Clone Wars(Seasons 1-6)
4. Star Wars: Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith
5. Star Wars: Rebels
6. Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope
7. Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
8. Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
This is, in my opinion, the best way to view Star Wars for new fans. We connect all the key material of the Star Wars canon and form them into one saga.
The Clone Wars is important because it, along with Rebels, tend to fill up key gaps in the plotline. We see some of the character motivations left out in the movies and the worldbuilding in both series is great. We see the inner workings of the Jedi, as well as the foundation of the Rebel Alliance.
Admittedly, the Clone Wars starts off weak at first. Yet, it picks up right in season 2. A lot of characters are fleashed out by themselves or through original characters.
A key problem through is that if someone wants to catch up on Star Wars with this model before the 18th...it's gonna be tough. But not as tough as the next one....
The Star Wars Grand Historical Saga:
1. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
2. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
3. Star Wars: The Old Republic
4. Star Wars: Darth Bane Trilogy
5. Star Wars: Darth Plagueis
6. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
7. Star Wars Episode II: The Attack of the Clones
8. Star Wars: Clone Wars 2003 micoseries (up to episode 21)
9. Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Everything Seasons 1-6)
10. Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir
11. Star Wars: Dark Disciple
12. Star Wars: Clone Wars (episodes 22-25)
13. Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith
14. Star Wars: Kanan: the Last Padawan
15. Star Wars: Rebels
16. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
17. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
18. Star Wars (2015 Marvel Comics) + Darth Vader Comics
19: Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
20. Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
21. Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
22. Star Wars: Aftermath
This is by far my favorite model as a fan. This method incorporates every element of the Star Wars canon, and even re-canonizes some of the old canon that could be "safely incorporated" into the new canon. The viewer lets it play out in chronological order seeing the amazing wealth of history in the Star Wars Galaxy. It also answers a lot of the questions that are left over after most of the old Canon got destroyed by incorporating choice elements.
For instance? Why can there be only two Sith? We learn from the SWTOR games that the original Sith Empire, and from the Darth Bane novels that his generation of Sith, are all prone to infighting. Darth Bane thus formed the Rule of Two. Likewise, who the hell were the characters of General Grevious and Asajj Ventress since Anakin and Obi-Wan knew them beforehand? We learn that they appeared in the 2003 series. Furthermore through novels such as the Darth Plagueis novel give insight on characters such as Palpatine, and side stories set in the Galactic Civil War era gives insight to the various battles fought between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire. And that's not getting into new and fresh interpretations of the Prophecy of the Chosen One(ie: Maybe both the Jedi and the Sith had to be destroyed so something could start anew.....) as gained through observing morally ambigious characters such as Kreia and Revan as well as the morally dubious actions of the Jedi as a whole.....
A problem however is that a lot of these things are video games and books, as well as two television series, of which one had 100+ episodes, combined with bonus content, as well as an MMO. A good chunk of this list is also, no longer canon. Not to mention that some of the books are varying quality and as the new canon may gradually change, this headcanon appears to be a temporary solution at most(in particular, The Force Unleashed, as Rebels is bound to contradict Force Unleashed, and thus at the moment the Force Unleashed reincorporated into any canon is shaky at best).
And if you are planning on blitzing this thing before the 18th.......good luck.
And there you have it. Choose which of these methods work best for you depending on your preferences, and enjoy. May the Force (with or without Midi-Chlorians) be with you on the 18th!
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