Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for practically the entire Star Wars franchise.
I don’t know who first came up with the format, but I really like the way tier lists work. Instead of trying to rank every film or episode in a series in perfect order, we can just give them a grade – which is a nice and easy way of expressing how we feel! So today, I thought it could be fun to make The Official* Star Wars Tier List… of all the shows and films that I’ve seen, at any rate.
I first came to Star Wars in the early 1990s, when I watched the original trilogy at the insistence of a schoolfriend. He had just bought the films on VHS, and even though I’d been getting into sci-fi with TV shows Star Trek: The Next Generation, Space 1999, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, and films like Flight of the Navigator, E.T., and Back to the Future, somehow Star Wars had completely passed me by. I might’ve seen a few toys in the shops, but that was all. I grew up in a rural part of England in the ’80s and ’90s – but I was too young to have seen any of the Star Wars films at the cinema, so I just hadn’t engaged with the franchise at all.
I was aware of the Star Trek-versus-Star Wars rivalry that fans at the time were still battling out, and as such I recall being unimpressed with Star Wars on that very first viewing. I felt it was somehow in opposition to “my” fandom – Star Trek: The Next Generation – and that some of its storylines were pretty basic and violent compared to what I guess I considered to be the more sophisticated and “grown-up” Star Trek. But that attitude didn’t last long – and after watching the films a couple more times and playing Super Star Wars on the SNES, as well as spending more time with my Star Wars-loving chum, I was officially a convert! I was a Star Wars fan!
And a Star Wars fan I remain to this day – even if I haven’t loved everything that the franchise has put out in the thirty-plus years I’ve been following it. But that’s a brief summary of my history with Star Wars to give you a bit of background as we put this tier list together.
Before we jump into the list, a couple of important caveats. As I always say, all of this is the entirely subjective opinion of just one fan. If you hate all of my rankings, if I put a film you hate way too high, or a series you adore way too low… that’s okay! Nothing about this is in any way “objective,” and while I will try to justify my rankings and explain why I placed each production in its tier, you are free to disagree vehemently. There should be enough room in the Star Wars fan community for civil discussion and polite disagreement.
Secondly, I will be ranking a number of Star Wars films, television shows, and – perhaps somewhat controversially – video games. I don’t know about you, but speaking for myself some of the best Star Wars stories have come from interactive media, and there are a couple of Star Wars games that I genuinely believe surpass the films and TV shows in terms of the quality of their storytelling, characterisation, and so on. It wouldn’t feel right to exclude those stories from this tier list… so I’m not!
Finally, I won’t be including any production that I haven’t seen for myself. What would be the point in pretending to rank a series or film I haven’t seen, after all? At the end I’ll make a note of these, but for reasons that I hope are obvious they aren’t going on the list.
I will be giving each Star Wars production one of the following grades: S, A, B, C, D, and F. These work like grades you might remember from school: F-tier is reserved for the worst of the worst, D-tier is pretty bad but a step up, C-tier is mediocre but not terrible, B-tier is generally good, A-tier is pretty great, and S-tier is the absolute cream of the crop! I will rank each production that I’ve seen/played in release order, beginning with the original Star Wars in 1977 and going through to 2024’s The Acolyte – which is the most recent Star Wars production at time of writing.
Phew! With all of that out of the way, let’s jump into the list.
Star Wars
(Episode IV: A New Hope)
1977
Tier: A
I think we have to rank the original Star Wars pretty highly, right? This is the film that created the entire franchise; without it, Star Wars wouldn’t exist. It introduced us to some great characters, established a setting that was crying out to be expanded upon, and above all told a really engaging story about the Rebel Alliance, the evil Empire, and a young man caught in the middle of it all. Luke Skywalker is a wonderful protagonist, point-of-view character, and introduction to this world.
The Death Star trench run has become iconic, as have the designs of ships like the X-Wing and Millennium Falcon. The characters of Ben Kenobi, Princess Leia, and Han Solo all felt like they had their own personalities and motivations, seeming to be real people inhabiting this fictional setting. The villainous duo of Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin had weight, meaning our heroes felt like they were in constant danger. All in all, a wonderful start to the franchise and a film I’m always happy to revisit.
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
1980
Tier: S
I’m not alone in considering The Empire Strikes Back to be Star Wars’ high-water mark, and I think you’ll see it right at the top of many folks’ ranked lists! And it’s easy to see why: this is a fantastic film. The opening scenes on Hoth set the tone for a story where the villains are on the march, and everything our heroes accomplished last time is at risk of being undone. Luke is able to follow in his father’s footsteps and pick up his Jedi training with the absolutely iconic Yoda, while Han and Leia are betrayed on Cloud City.
The Empire Strikes Back also contains one of the most iconic scenes in all of cinema: when Luke finds out that Darth Vader is his father. This was a pretty shocking twist, and one that reframed much of the story. Lightsaber duelling stepped up about ten notches in this film, and we were also introduced – albeit briefly – to Darth Vader’s master: the Emperor. Iconic designs like the AT-AT and Snowspeeder debuted here, and the Battle of Hoth is still one of the most tense and exciting that the franchise has ever produced. No doubt that The Empire Strikes Back is a top-tier Star Wars production.
Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
1983
Tier: C
On that first viewing of the Star Wars films that I told you about, my friend’s father insisted that Return of the Jedi was a crap film and a poor way for the trilogy to end. And this was not an uncommon view at the time: a second Death Star already feels pretty derivative, the conflict at Jabba’s palace drags on too long, and the Ewoks were an army of teddy bears that disrupted the Emperor’s carefully-laid plans! I wouldn’t say Return of the Jedi is “bad,” but I would say it’s nowhere near as good as its predecessors.
Return of the Jedi also retconned the relationship between Luke and Leia. I maintain that this decision was a mistake, one that’s been compounded by subsequent productions. Having Luke be Vader’s son was a shocking twist that worked; having Leia be Luke’s sister was an attempt to replicate that… but it didn’t live up to what had come before and doesn’t make a ton of sense, either. Return of the Jedi is also the film that introduced “from a certain point of view;” an overly complicated work of semantic gymnastics to justify the retcon in The Empire Strikes Back – and something that was not only entirely unnecessary, but that has also proven damaging to other stories as the franchise has doubled-down.
The Super Star Wars trilogy
1992-1994
Tier: B
The first part of this trio of SNES games was my first introduction to Star Wars in the video game realm – and it was a lot of fun. These games are challenging 2D platformers, and they don’t always succeed at faithfully adapting the story of the films! In order to make some Star Wars scenes and settings fit the 2D platforming mould, some pretty big liberties were taken and the games diverge from those stories in a significant way. However, there’s plenty of enjoyment to be had jumping and blasting your way across a variety of Star Wars environments… or at least there was in the early ’90s!
X-Wing and TIE Fighter
1993/1994
Tier: B
Although undeniably dated by today’s standards, I loved playing TIE Fighter in the mid-90s. I didn’t go back to play X-Wing for several years (I didn’t own a copy at the time), but when I did I enjoyed that game, too. Both of these titles really let players feel like they were genuine starfighter pilots in a galaxy far away – even more so if you played with a joystick! These games were tremendous fun… but also pretty difficult! I imagine returning to them nowadays would be pretty hard, and I admit that I’m definitely cruising on my gamer nostalgia here!
Shadows of the Empire
1996
Tier: A
Shadows of the Empire was one of the first games I bought after getting a Nintendo 64 for Christmas in 1997, and I had a blast going on my very own Star Wars adventure. Shadows of the Empire introduced a brand-new character – Dash Rendar – and dropped him into the story of The Empire Strikes Back. After playing through the Battle of Hoth, Dash has his own adjacent adventure that sees him team up with all of the heroes of the original trilogy while battling against the likes of Boba Fett and IG-88.
This was the first game to really give me the sense of being part of the Star Wars galaxy on my own terms, and I think that’s because of how well-written Dash is as a protagonist. He feels like a real character with his own story to tell, and unlike in games like Super Star Wars, where you’d play as Luke and other characters, introducing someone brand-new really expanded the story. It was a ton of fun to go on this adventure through some wonderfully diverse levels – and the combination of gameplay in space and on the ground was neat, too.
Rogue Squadron
1998
Tier: B
Another classic from the Nintendo 64, Rogue Squadron felt like a huge step up from TIE Fighter thanks to its 3D models and more diverse levels. It was also a lot easier than those other titles, with a better control scheme and more forgiving gameplay. There were also different spaceships to pilot: the X-Wing, of course, but also the A-Wing, Y-Wing, and Snowspeeder, each of which had different weapons that could be useful in different missions.
Episode I: The Phantom Menace
1999
Tier: F
I went back and forth on this, trying to decide if The Phantom Menace does enough to scrape its way into D-tier. But unfortunately it doesn’t, and the film remains one of the low points of the Star Wars franchise for me. I remember the buzz and excitement The Phantom Menace generated on its release in cinemas… and I also remember the controversy and disappointment it caused.
I’ve addressed this before, but the short version is that The Phantom Menace kick-started a story that just didn’t need to be told. We knew everything we needed to know about Anakin, Palpatine, and Obi-Wan Kenobi from the original trilogy, and seeing the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker just wasn’t necessary. The Phantom Menace also contained some poorly-written dialogue, a convoluted storyline, some questionable character inclusions, and more. However, I will give the film credit for successfully bringing a whole new generation of Star Wars fans on board – and that, more so than anything else, was its objective.
Episode I: Jedi Power Battles
2000
Tier: B
Although less well-remembered than Episode I: Racer these days, Jedi Power Battles was a surprisingly fun action-platformer. The film it was based on may have been a disappointment, but Jedi Power Battles turned out to be a genuinely good time. I picked it up on the Dreamcast, and playing it co-op with a friend on the couch was a lot of fun (especially after a few drinks!)
Jedi Power Battles expanded the roster of characters, with some minor and background Jedi from the film becoming playable. As with Shadows of the Empire above, taking on different roles and playing as new and unknown characters felt pretty good, and the additional characters played well with the game’s expanded story. All in all, a fun romp – albeit held back by the source material’s weak story.
Episode II: Attack of the Clones
2002
Tier: D
Attack of the Clones was Star Wars’ chance to redeem itself after The Phantom Menace… and if that was its objective, the film failed miserably. The writing and dialogue could be shockingly bad (“I don’t like sand,” anyone?) and the film’s overreliance on green screens and CGI that just wasn’t at the level it needed to be has meant it’s aged incredibly poorly. Seriously: the original trilogy, made more than two decades earlier, looks a heck of a lot better than Attack of the Clones, which looks like a Dreamcast-era cut-scene in places.
Attack of the Clones also continued Star Wars’ annoying trend of making every major and minor character related to someone else. In this case we meet Jango Fett – father of Boba Fett and the “template” for the Kaminoans’ clone army. I like watching Palpatine’s scheme unfold, and Count Dooku – played by the late great Christopher Lee – is a fine addition as a villain. But overall, the film still struggles. Attack of the Clones also has characters and story beats that were either set up or expanded upon in comics or other spin-off media, and this left it feeling somewhat incomplete when the credits rolled.
Knights of the Old Republic
2003
Tier: A
Now we’re getting somewhere! Knights of the Old Republic helped me to fall in love with Star Wars all over again and put the disappointment of the first two prequel films to bed. There are prequel-era references throughout, of course, but KOtoR told a story that stood on its own two feet, fully separate from the characters of both the original films and prequels for the very first time. I absolutely adored this adventure, and creating my own character and taking them across the galaxy was just fantastic.
KOtoR’s innovative light side-dark side system was a blast, giving the game more replayability. The companion characters and villains were all absolutely incredible, and the variety of levels and missions on offer was outstanding, too. And the twist! I genuinely did not see the game’s big revelation coming until almost the last second, and when it was revealed I can vividly remember sitting on my couch, holding my Xbox control pad with my mouth just hanging open in shock. After the Vader-Luke reveal in The Empire Strikes Back, KOtoR’s twist is the best the franchise has ever pulled off.
Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
2004
Tier: S
As great as the first KOtoR had been, its sequel was even better. Despite being a rushed game with some content having to be cut, the story is just absolutely phenomenal, with stunning planets to visit, a war-torn protagonist still suffering the effects of their service and choices they made, and a stellar cast of secondary characters who all feel like real people. My Star Wars love is Visas Marr, by the way, and her arc from Sith assassin to Jedi apprentice is one of the best and most touching in any Star Wars production to date.
There are some wonderful set-pieces in KOtoR II, as the Jedi Exile travels the galaxy in search of the few remaining Jedi Knights and the Sith Lords who had been hunting them. Boss fights against these Sith – and the final climactic fight against Darth Traya – are tense and a ton of fun, and the game’s story is gripping from start to finish. Twenty years later and I’d still love nothing more than to get a proper sequel to this game.
Battlefront and Battlefront II
2004-2005
Tier: B
The original Battlefront games – before EA sunk its money-tainted claws into the series – were great fun. I’m not really a multiplayer gamer, and I like games with strong narratives first and foremost, but there was a lot of enjoyment to get from both of these games. Even the levels focused on the prequel trilogy were solid, and fighting wave after wave of enemy soldiers was something that most games at the time didn’t offer – not like this, at any rate.
In multiplayer was where Battlefront and Battlefront II really excelled, though, and if you could find three friends to play with on the couch, you were definitely in for a fun night!
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
2005
Tier: C
The final part of the prequel trilogy went some way to redeeming the story, and was certainly a cut above what had come before. There are still issues with visuals and CGI as well as some clumsily-written dialogue, but there are also some tense and exciting moments as the Jedi Order falls and Anakin loses himself to the dark side. The main lightsaber duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan runs way too long for me, but other fights earlier in the film – including against Grievous and Count Dooku – were pretty great.
A critic far smarter than I am once suggested that an extended Revenge of the Sith could have replaced the prequel trilogy, and I don’t think that’s a bad idea on the whole. There would’ve been more time for Anakin’s premonitions and slide to darkness to be shown, and for Palpatine’s manipulation of the situation to play out. All in all, though, Revenge of the Sith may not be perfect, but it’s by far the best part of the prequel trilogy.
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
2007
Tier: A
I wasn’t sure whether to include this game, but it’s a ton of fun so why not? This compilation brought together the two earlier Lego Star Wars titles into one package – and with Star Wars apparently complete as a six-film series, it took a comedic romp through the entire story. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga was just overstuffed with content – so many characters to unlock, things to collect, and areas of levels that weren’t accessible on a first run. The lack of dialogue and mumbling also made the game feel light-hearted and funny – and after the relative disappointment of the prequel trilogy, putting a different spin on Star Wars to make it fun and entertaining again was just what I needed!
Episode VII: The Force Awakens
2015
Tier: D
In 2015, I adored The Force Awakens. Returning to Star Wars’ “greatest hits” seemed to be just what the doctor ordered as a new era for the franchise got underway. However, with the benefit of hindsight the film’s weaknesses come into full view. The decision to have Luke Skywalker go missing – with no reason for why he’d disappeared being written – was a mistake, and with the death of Han Solo, any chance of reuniting the trio of heroes from the original trilogy was gone. The film is also incredibly derivative to the point of outright copying: a young Force-sensitive person from a desert planet joins a rebellion against a faction of space fascists and helps them blow up a planet-destroying super-weapon. There’s even a “trench run,” for goodness’ sake.
Unfortunately, The Force Awakens was a weak foundation upon which to build the rest of the sequel trilogy, and the decision to allow each writer/director free rein to do whatever they wanted led to a jumbled narrative mess. There were positives in The Force Awakens – the character of Finn, for instance, and his story of defecting from the First Order and overcoming his indoctrination, as well as a story that involved an older Han and Leia reuniting to try to save their son. But there were too many missteps and mistakes – and I just can’t forgive that the film squandered so many of the opportunities that a Star Wars sequel should have had.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
2016
Tier: S
I didn’t really have high expectations for Rogue One when I heard about it. A prequel all about stealing the Death Star plans just didn’t sound all that exciting – but I was wrong about that! Jyn Erso made for a wonderful protagonist, and her story took her from being apathetic and sitting on the sidelines to leading the mission that inspired the Rebellion. Cassian Andor was such a great character that he ended up getting his own spin-off. The decision to kill off practically all of the main characters was also incredibly bold for this franchise.
There are so many great moments and sequences in Rogue One that we’d run out of time trying to list them all! The mission to Jedha was incredible, characters like Krennic and Saw Gerrera have become iconic, and while I never felt that the destruction of the Death Star needed an in-universe explanation, learning how it came to be sabotaged was genuinely interesting. An unexpected story that expanded upon the lore of Star Wars in a really fun way.
Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
2017
Tier: A
The Last Jedi is a great film. It isn’t as great as it wants to be, and there are places where it misses the mark or where its storytelling gets too in-your-face. But it represents a brave attempt to take the franchise in a different direction, far away from the copycat narrative of its predecessor. Some of the things introduced here really work well and expand our understanding of the Star Wars galaxy. I really like the Holdo manoeuvre, for example, and how the film took a look at the galaxy’s mega-rich citizens who are content to sit out the war, knowing that whichever side wins they’ll still come out on top.
Moreover, the film puts two big twists on the story of the sequels. First, Rey turned out not to be descended from a known character. For me, this made her far more interesting and set her up as a protagonist in her own right. Secondly, Kylo rejected any pull to the light side and tried to seize power for himself, setting himself up as the ruler of the First Order. Both of these twists worked exceptionally well… before they were immediately undone in the final instalment of the trilogy.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
2018
Tier: C
There’s nothing wrong with the main thrust of the plot in Solo: A Star Wars Story… but nothing about the film feels all that special or interesting, either. The story basically doubles down on Star Wars’ prequel problem; we just didn’t need to see this chapter of Han Solo’s life to understand who he is or what his priorities are. We’d already been able to infer all of that from his earlier appearances, and while we learned a bit more about Han in a strictly factual sense… none of that really mattered.
I also loathe the resurrection of the obviously-dead Darth Maul and his insertion into Disney-era canon. Star Wars has continually struggled to let go of characters – even relatively minor and unsuccessful ones – and to see Maul popping up as a “crime lord” of all things was just… ugh. I hated it. The central heist at the film’s core was good enough and there were some solid moments of characterisation. But the film was let down by its fundamental premise.
The Mandalorian
2019-Present
Tier: C
The Mandalorian has some fun scenes and great design elements, introduces some creative new characters, takes us to new worlds, and tells a story that dives deeply into a little-known faction. But for me, The Mandalorian didn’t really hit the mark. Its premise of following “the adventures of a gunslinger beyond the reach of the New Republic” sounded spectacular… but within two episodes the show brought the Force back into play. Things only got worse from there, with Luke Skywalker eventually showing up in person to hammer home that this series can’t escape the clutches of nostalgia.
Worse, though, was the protagonist himself – who seemed, for the first season-and-a-half at least, to have no understandable motivation for doing… anything. Mandy seemed to act at the behest of a room full of TV writers, and it showed, with massive story points like betraying his client to save Baby Yoda coming from nowhere. The series is also too short, with Seasons 1 and 2 barely amounting to the runtime of just one season of television – and sharing two halves of a story that would’ve been a lot better if it had played out in a single season instead of two. Things have improved and the series has grown on me, but I can’t escape the feeling that there’s some wasted potential here.
Jedi: Fallen Order
2019
Tier: A
I had a great time with Jedi: Fallen Order. After the disappointments of both The Mandalorian and The Rise of Skywalker (which I watched before playing the game), I was glad to see that I hadn’t entirely fallen out of love with Star Wars. Cal’s story of re-establishing his connection to the Force, rediscovering his Jedi side, and going on a rip-roaring adventure across the galaxy was great, and I felt like I was right there with him thanks to some outstanding voice acting and animation work.
Jedi: Fallen Order also gave me what is probably my favourite Star Wars video game moment: piloting an AT-AT! This sequence is one of the best in the game and is just perfectly-paced. There are a few points that come together to deny Fallen Order S-tier status, though: overuse of Super Mario 64′s sliding mechanic, having to both re-play levels and backtrack through them after finishing an objective, and a confusing false choice early in the game all took some of the shine off of what was an otherwise fantastic experience.
Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker
2019
Tier: F
What an atrocious film. The Rise of Skywalker jumps around, barely spending more than a few seconds per scene, desperately trying to undo the big story points from The Last Jedi. It basically tries to cram two films’ worth of plot into the runtime of a single title, and so many of the storylines it tries to include just fall flat on their face. The clumsy insertion of Palpatine into a story that was never meant to be his not only ruins this film, but manages to make the rest of the sequel trilogy and even the original trilogy feel worse in retrospect.
The Rise of Skywalker betrays or completely misunderstands most of the characters it includes, like Kylo, Rey, and General Hux, undoing key parts of their stories and characterisations. It ignores altogether major characters like Rose and Finn, relegating them to the sidelines and having no idea how to use them. And finally, it contains probably the single worst line of dialogue in the entire Star Wars franchise: “Somehow Palpatine returned.” I don’t like to single out individual writers or creatives for criticism, but I genuinely hope that the people who wrote that line, approved it, and got it into the film never work in the entertainment industry again.
Star Wars Squadrons
2020
Tier: B
Squadrons feels like an updated TIE Fighter or Rogue Squadron – and yes, those are compliments! Thanks to major advances in graphics, sitting in the pilot seat of a starfighter has never looked more beautiful, and the game really succeeds at capturing that sensation in a way few titles ever have. Narratively there wasn’t a lot to say, but the story was worth following to its conclusion, and the side characters were solid in their own ways. I haven’t fired up Squadrons for a while, but I really should jump back in and have another go – it really is the best Star Wars simulator out there right now.
The Disney+ Lego Star Wars Specials
2020-Present
Tier: A
There have been three Lego Star Wars specials made for Disney+ at time of writing – though a fourth is arriving imminently. And all of them have been great fun! I like the less serious tone of these specials, and how each one so far has had a seasonal theme. Terrifying Tales also did more to give backstory to Ben Solo and the Knights of Ren than the entire sequel trilogy had done, and it was quite cathartic to see that!
Star Wars shouldn’t be taken too seriously all the time, and these Lego specials really lean into the more fun, light-hearted, and casual side of the franchise. At the end of the day, Star Wars is supposed to be entertaining – and if there’s one thing I can say about the Lego Star Wars specials it’s that they absolutely entertained me!
The Book of Boba Fett
2021
Tier: A
I really did not expect to like The Book of Boba Fett. Boba himself always felt like a non-entity to me; a minor character elevated, somehow, through high sales of his action figure, but who did nothing of consequence in the original films and who died incredibly easily in his only big fight! The series also had a huge hurdle to overcome: how did Boba survive dying in Return of the Jedi? I wouldn’t have chosen to greenlight The Book of Boba Fett if I’d been in charge!
But I was wrong, and I found a surprisingly entertaining series with heart. Boba’s adventure on Tatooine was just plain fun in a way that I really hadn’t been expecting, and this miniseries about a character I’d always been underwhelmed by was much, much better than I could have expected. It wasn’t perfect, of course, and in some ways it felt closer to The Mandalorian Season 3 than a standalone project. But I had fun with The Book of Boba Fett for what it was, and I enjoyed its contribution to the Star Wars galaxy.
Obi-Wan Kenobi
2022
Tier: F
Obi-Wan Kenobi has done the impossible: it has eclipsed both The Phantom Menace and The Rise of Skywalker to become my least-favourite Star Wars project of all time. The series was already going to tell the least-interesting chapter in Obi-Wan’s life, but it ended up completely ruining his character and undermining one of the most powerful moments in A New Hope. It’s the textbook example of why prequels and mid-quels have to be handled with care, and honestly I could write a book about all the things this series got wrong.
In principle, the idea of Obi-Wan leaving Tatooine to rescue Leia could have worked, but it would’ve needed to be a completely different story, one that kept Darth Vader completely out of it. Bringing back Vader for yet more lightsaber duelling with Obi-Wan just felt desperate and tacky, and the entire series fell apart. It was unnecessary in the first place, poorly-written, and with a central premise that completely undermines Ben Kenobi’s role in A New Hope.
Jedi: Survivor
2023
Tier: D
I was properly excited to get a sequel to Fallen Order and to get back out in the Star Wars galaxy with Cal and the crew of the Stinger Mantis. But the story Jedi: Survivor told was pretty weak and convoluted by comparison. The sheer randomness of parts of the story – like Greez just accidentally building his cantina atop ancient Jedi ruins – went a long way to undermining it, the surprise return of Master Cordova completely fell flat, an ancient Jedi sealed in a bacta tank for centuries was kind of silly, and a “lost” planet that no one could reach just felt like a boring macguffin. Fallen Order gave Cal a quest that I could follow and that seemed to flow naturally from point to point. Survivor felt much more artificial and constructed.
The game was also let down, in my view, by a reliance on open-world level design that just didn’t fit the story. The supposedly hidden, off-the-beaten-path settlement of Ramblers Reach was located a stone’s throw from two huge Imperial bases and the headquarters of a pirate warlord, and the Jedi outpost on Jedha was walking distance from two massively important areas, too. And of course, there was a traitor in Cal’s group who was so incredibly obvious from his first second on screen that he might as well have had the words “secret bad guy” tattooed across his forehead. The game being released way too early while unfinished and full of glitches didn’t help matters, either.
The Acolyte
2024
Tier: B
So we come to The Acolyte – the latest Star Wars series at time of writing! Although it proved to be controversial, I generally liked what I saw in this one-and-done series. Stepping away from the “Skywalker saga” to tell a story in a different time period is something I’d been wanting to see on the big or small screen for a long time, and a focus on the Sith was also something interesting. I don’t think The Acolyte hit all of the high notes it was aiming for, but it was decent nevertheless.
If Star Wars is going to survive long-term, stepping away from familiar characters and the time period of the Empire will be necessary, and The Acolyte is the franchise’s first real attempt to do so. That is admirable, even if it comes a bit late in the day! The story also framed the Jedi Order in somewhat of a negative way, showing how it can fall prey to internal politicking, emotion, and disagreement – all of which were themes that were present in the prequel and sequel trilogies.
So that’s it!
I’m pretty sure that those are all of the Star Wars films, games, and TV shows that I’ve spent enough time with to place on this list. You’ll note some absences: the animated Star Wars shows of the 2000s/2010s, as well as Andor, Ahsoka, and the Force Unleashed games, to name but a few. I haven’t watched or played everything in the Star Wars franchise – and I probably won’t get around to all of them. That’s why they’re not part of this list.
Let’s take a look at how the final tier list looks:
Putting this tier list together has been great fun, and it’s been interesting to revisit some of these Star Wars projects. It’s been a long time since I so much as thought about the TIE Fighter game, and I haven’t re-watched the likes of The Mandalorian Season 1 since it premiered, so going back to them has certainly been something different.
I hope none of these opinions proved to be too controversial! At the end of the day, I’m a Star Wars fan – but I don’t enjoy every single thing that has been produced for the franchise. Still, whether we agree or disagree on what the highlights are, I think you can see that there are more positives than negatives in this wonderful space epic!
All that remains to say is this: May the Force be with you! And I hope you’ll check back soon for more Star Wars discussion here on Trekking with Dennis.
*Obviously this list is not official in any way. The title is a joke!
Most films and TV shows in the Star Wars franchise can be streamed on Disney+ or purchased on DVD, Blu-ray, or digitally. Some games discussed above are out-of-print, others may be available on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and/or Nintendo consoles. The Star Wars franchise – including all films, games, and television shows discussed above – is the copyright of Lucasfilm and The Walt Disney Company. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.
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