First Star Wars Movie

phantom menace is first

If you want to see them in the order they were made, Then start with "A New Hope", then "The Empire Strikes Back", then "Return of the Jedi". That would be episodes 4, 5 and 6. Then watch the next three, "The Phantom Menace", "The Clone Wars" and "Revenge of the Sith" and finally "The Force Awakens". That's episodes 1,2,3, and 7.

What about Rogue One? Before a New Hope would be amazing first time through.

Haven't you seen them before? If you haven't, a lot of people recommend the order 4 5 2 3 6 7 (omitting 1 entirely) as the most engaging. In this sequence, episode 4 "A New Hope" comes first.

Personally, I love the whole series and would watch them 1 2 3 4 5 6 7, true narrative order. In this sequence, episode 1 "Phantom Menace" comes first.

I just saw Rogue One today. It was pretty awesome. The problem (in my opinion) with watching them in any other order than originally presented is the difference in style and quality of the special effects,. Not that special effects make the movie, but in the case of Star Wars they can't be ignored.

Thank you.

That is a trickier question than you might think.

The first within the chronology of the Star Wars universe would be Episode I: Phantom Menace.

The first movie that was made was the one in 1977 (now titled Episode IV: A New Hope).

Episode IV: A New Hope was written in a way to introduce the audience to the universe and the characters within it.

Episode I: Phantom Menace was written in a way that assumes everyone is already familiar with the story and characters within it. It not only doesn't do as much to introduce the audience to the story, but episodes I though III contain spoilers to the later episodes.

Before Rogue One came out, the preferred way to watch the movies was called the Machete Order:

Start with Episode IV, then watch Episode V. Then go back in time to Episode II and III (skipping Episode I). Then finish with Episode VI.



However, now that Rogue One is out, that will likely change, as Rogue One is certain to always come immediately before Episode IV.

I would recommend Starting with Episode I now. But for Episodes I through III, I would recommend the fanedit versions by Q2:

http://ifdb.fanedit.org/fall-of-the-jedi-episode-i-the-phantom-menace/

http://ifdb.fanedit.org/fall-of-the-jedi-episode-ii-attack-of-the-clones/

http://ifdb.fanedit.org/fall-of-the-jedi-episode-iii-revenge-of-the-sith/

Keep in mind that the Movie/TV series Clone Wars comes between Episodes II and III. And it does include important parts of the story.

If you don't want to watch a whole TV series, smudger9 has condensed the significant events of the Clone Wars series into four movies:

http://ifdb.fanedit.org/clone-wars-episode-i-army-of-the-republic-the/

http://ifdb.fanedit.org/clone-wars-episode-ii-a-new-threat/

http://ifdb.fanedit.org/star-wars-clone-wars-episode-iii-children-of-the-force/

http://ifdb.fanedit.org/star-wars-clone-wars-episode-iv-a-galaxy-divided/

There is also a TV series, Star Wars Rebels, that comes between Episode III and Rogue One. To my knowledge no faneditors have dealt with this yet, but it will probably be condensed into a series of movies by future faneditors.

Also important, perhaps most important of all, is to see an original version of Episodes IV and V. George Lucas modified these films in recent years and made them significantly worse. To see an original version of these you'll want to get a reconstruction by a guy named Harmy. His most recent Episode IV is version 2.7. His most recent Episode V is version 2.0 (although 2.5 is due someday soon). Make sure you get the most recent version.

For Episode VI, I would recommend either Harmy's reconstruction of the original (I believe he is currently at version 2.5), or Q2's fanedit of the movie (which keeps the galaxy-wide celebration at the end, but otherwise removes most of Lucas' later "improvements").

http://ifdb.fanedit.org/star-wars-return-of-the-jedi-a-q2-fanedit/



So, my recommendation would be:

Episode I (Q2 fanedit)

Episode II (Q2 fanedit)

Clone Wars (preferably the smudger9 fanedits, but watch the entire movie and TV series if you like)

Episode III (Q2 fanedit)

Star Wars Rebels (ongoing TV series)

Rogue One

Episode IV (Harmy reconstruction of 1977 original) (and chose the original theatrical mono)

Episode V (Harmy reconstruction of 1980 original) (chose the mono again)

Episode VI (either the Q2 fanedit or the Harmy reconstruction of the 1983 original)

The first time I saw Rogue One I came home and immediately watched Harmy's reconstruction of the original 1977 Star Wars.

I suspect the need to play Rogue One immediately before Episode IV means the end of the Machete Order.

Episodes 4, 5 and 6 were very good as far as story telling. I would start there. Episode 1 was a piece of crap, and 2 and 3 only had perhaps 30 minutes of goodness between them.

Episode 7 was a rehash of episode 4 with a female lead. Technically it happened in the future... but the story is almost identical (kid growing up on a desert planet finds a droid with a secret message leading to a Jedi master and adventures which have the exact same against all odds ending). It didn't add much to the story.

Rogue One was fun... and it happened just before Episode 4 chronilogically.

I would suggest Rogue 1, 4, 5, 6, 7 and maybe 3 (fast forward to the senate scene)

Have you seen what a good FanEdit can do for a bad movie?

Really, try Q2's "Fall of the Jedi" FanEdits of the prequels. He even made Episode I into a good movie.