The only Star Wars I’ve ever seen is the holiday special, can’t say I’d recommend it. :0 I guess to some degree that’s one way to experience the franchise though!

Go for release order. People (including me) can complain about episode 1 all they want, I think it’s better to get a good grasp of “what was intended” first before understanding the whole fan recommendations

While I don’t recommend it for a first watch, I have access to a copy of the fulcrum cut, a super-cut of the last three episodes of Clone Wars and Revenge of the Sith.

You can DM me if you want it

1. Don’t listen to anything the fans have to say. It’s well-known that the worst thing about SW is the fans. Especially their opinions.
2. I suggest watching them in release order, including the sequels. That’s how the rest of the world experienced it.
3. I didn’t hate the OT remasters. I actually liked the continuity with the prequels. CGI is about what you can expect from a 2000s remaster of a 1970s-era movie.
4. I liked the prequels, I grew up with them. Jar Jar is funny. #1 is a bit more slow-paced and deals with politics more than action, but it’s enjoyable (and quite relatable at the moment).
5. Disregard anything the fans have to say. The worst thing about Star Wars is the fans.
6. Fan theories are an absolute waste of time, and if you go down that rabbit hole, you’ll get more hate than you’ve ever experienced before. SW fans suck.

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4 (A New Hope) 5 (The Empire Strikes Back)

Aaaaand… STOP

Another vote for Machete order. Simply put, it is a good way to watch the original trilogy, experience the story plot in episode 5 and get the back story in the subsequent trilogy.

Watching it in episode order for new viewers will mean they will experience episode 5 very differently.

get 6 screens and watch them all simultaneously, no audio, just subtitles.

First watch these:

• Star Wars Holiday Special
• The Ewok Adventure
• Ewoks: The Battle for Endor

When you have finished those, you should be filled with hate and suffering. You will welcome the dark side. Now you are ready.

Start watching

• The Phantom Menace.

Stop watching before the pod race ends.

Play the videogame

• Star Wars: Pod Racer.

Crash the first pod race, killing little Anakin.

Congratulations!

You’ve stopped the evil Sith lords from rising to power. You’ve saved the Ewoks. You’ve saved Jarjar. Balance in the universe remains balanced. You truly are one with the force. You are ready for the light side.

Watch

• Clone Wars

The animated series that aired on Cartoon Network. Not “The Clone Wars”!!! That’s different. Don’t watch that one. It sucks. You want the one made by Genddy Tartakovski, known for his masterpieces, Samurai Jack and Dexter’s Laboratory and his pivotal work in the series The Powerpuff Girls.

You wont need to watch anything else.

You wont want to watch anything else.

Ever.

Machete order or bust.

Rogue One, A New Hope, The Blackened Mantle, Return of the Jedi, The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and you’re done.

I’m a fan of the Machete Order.

There may be some spoilers in that blog post, it’s been a while since I read it, so here it is in summary:

• A New Hope (4)
• Empire Strikes Back (5)
• Attack of the Clones (2)
• Revenge of the Sith (3)
• Return of the Jedi (5)

Phantom Menace is omitted because it’s the weakest of the prequel trilogy and everything that happens in it is summarized at the beginning of Attack of the Clones anyway. If you want to be a completionist then watch it between Empire Strikes Back and Attack of the Clones.

There’s good reasons for following this order, but it’s hard to describe them without spoiling anything. Basically, Lucas assumed you’d watched the original trilogy when he made the prequels, so it’s got a bunch of spoilers in it that the Machete Order preserves quite nicely.

Watch in release order. This is the way they were written so it will make the most sense as a first time viewer.

You will hear about the Machete order if you research Star Wars viewing orders, but this is best for subsequent watches.

Aside from the OT and PT, the projects I recommend are the Clone Wars series (it’s a lot though), Rogue One, Andor, and the Mandalorian.

Kenobi was meh but had some really good moments.

Watch the sequel trilogy once if you must, but I think they’re pretty bad and forgettable.

I’d recommend watching them in release order, as that’s how most people have experienced them. You’ll have a better understanding of the commonly ascribed strengths and weaknesses of the respective films and trilogies if you watch them this way. It is also very common opinion that each trilogy is substantially worse than the previous one, so if you watch them this way then you have an off-ramp at the end of the first and second trilogies if/when you’ve decided you’ve had enough - you’ll never have to sit through bad films to get to the good ones.

The Machete Order is an interesting idea but I’m a little hesitant to recommend it because so many of these fan edits are designed by people who are in so deep that they tend to skim/omit information that is actually relevant to first time viewers who have no idea what is happening. Star Wars fans, like all fans of these geek franchises, often have a hard time seeing things from the perspective of people who don’t share their obsession. For that reason, I also strongly recommend against watching any of the TV series or filler/standalone films until you’ve finished at least the first two trilogies, because they are written for Star Wars fans to flesh out the events around the main films and are filled with tons of irrelevant references and fan service that are just going to confuse and/or bore you.

Try to find the original versions of the first three movies without the added CG that messes with the story a little.