May the Fourth Be With You

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 It's Star Wars day - a celebration of the franchise that was born by starting half-way through the story then adding to it on both the front and back.

 I was just a 13-year-old kid when the first movie, Episode IV, A New Hope debuted in 1977. It was also the first PG movie I saw with or without my parents. I went with my best friend, K.C. We loved it.

 As I recall, neither of us contemplated the notion that we might see new episodes or stories from the Star Wars universe 50 years later!  

Over the years, I've seen all the movies but didn't pay attention to the animated features when they came out. Maybe I should have, at the time I didn't grasp that additions to the Star Wars timeline would come from multiple angles.

Movie poster 7/4/2018 dwm

There are books that add even more to the stories, but if it isn't released as part of the George Lucas, now Disney line, I've let them go.

During Covid, my wife and I watched the entire collection of Marvel Comics' Avengers Universe, so recently I pulled up a list of how to take in Star Wars as far as its chronology. I've never attempted to digest the story in order, but it's a possibility.

In reviewing the current list as of May 4, 2025, I've seen 16 of the 25 chapters in the Star Wars legacy. How many have you seen?  (For the purpose of this count, a TV series, like Mandalorian, counts as 1 chapter.)

• The Acolyte (2024)
• Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (Episode I) (1999)
• Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (Episode II) (2002)
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars (movie, 2008)  
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars (series, 2008)
• Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi (2022)
• Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (Episode III) (2005)   
  
• Star Wars: Tales of the Empire (2024)
• Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021)
• Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
• Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)
• Andor (2022)  
  
• Star Wars Rebels (2014)
• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
• Star Wars: A New Hope (Episode IV) (1977)
• Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (Episode V) (1980)
• Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (Episode VI) (1983)
  
• The Mandalorian (2019)
• The Book of Boba Fett (2021)
• Ahsoka (2023)
• Skeleton Crew (2024)  
  
• Star Wars Resistance (2018)
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Episode VII) (2015)
• Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Episode VIII) (2017)
• Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (Episode IX) (2019)
  
  

The Rise of Skywalker movie poster. 12/24/2019 dwm