The Best Star Wars Movies, Ranked (All 12 Films Reviewed for 2026)

The Short Answer

The Empire Strikes Back (1980) is the best Star Wars movie. Full stop.

By critic consensus (94% on Rotten Tomatoes), audience scores (97%), film school curricula, and every "best sequel ever made" ranking published in the last 40 years, Empire is the gold standard not just of Star Wars but of franchise filmmaking itself.

Here's how all 12 theatrical Star Wars films rank.

The Complete Ranking (Best to Worst)

Rankings combine critic consensus, audience scores, cultural impact, and rewatch value. Reasonable people will reshuffle 3–7. Almost nobody disputes positions 1, 2, and 11–12.

1. The Empire Strikes Back (1980) — The Masterpiece

Director: Irvin Kershner • Writers: Leigh Brackett, Lawrence Kasdan

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Empire is the rare sequel that made the original retroactively better. It took the bright, mythic Star Wars (1977) and added shadow, ambiguity, and grief. Every Star Wars film since has been measured against it — and none have matched it.

What works:

• The "I am your father" twist — still the most famous reveal in cinema
• Yoda introduced as a frog-puppet who turns out to be the greatest Jedi alive
• The Hoth battle, opening with the AT-AT walkers
• Cloud City, Bespin, and Lando's moral grayness
• A downbeat ending — Han frozen, Luke maimed, the Rebellion in retreat

Why it's #1: No Star Wars film has earned its emotional climaxes the way Empire does. Kershner's direction is patient. Brackett and Kasdan's script trusts the audience.

2. Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) — The Original

Director/Writer: George Lucas

The one that started everything. A New Hope reinvented blockbuster cinema, won 7 Academy Awards, and grossed (inflation-adjusted) the equivalent of $3.5 billion.

What works:

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• A perfect three-act hero's journey
• The Tatooine opening — twin suns, droids in the desert
• The Death Star trench run finale
• Han Solo and the Mos Eisley cantina
• A standalone movie that didn't need sequels — until it did

Why it's not #1: It set the table. Empire ate the meal.

3. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) — The Best Disney-Era Film

Director: Gareth Edwards • Writers: Chris Weitz, Tony Gilroy

Rogue One is what Disney-era Star Wars looks like at its peak. A war movie that ends with every protagonist dead, leading directly into A New Hope's opening scrawl.

What works:

• Donnie Yen's Chirrut Îmwe and the blind Force monk archetype
• Vader's hallway scene — the most terrifying use of the character ever
• The Scarif beach battle, shot like Saving Private Ryan
• Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso — a hero we know will die
• Tony Gilroy's third-act rewrite saving the film in post-production

Why it's #3: It earns its emotional weight in 134 minutes. It also directly inspired Andor, the best Star Wars TV ever made.

4. Return of the Jedi (1983) — The Triumphant Closer

Director: Richard Marquand • Writers: Lawrence Kasdan, George Lucas

Jedi gets unfair criticism for the Ewoks. The throne room scene — Luke, Vader, the Emperor — is one of the best-acted sequences in the saga. The space battle above Endor is still the gold standard.

What works:

• The throne room confrontation and Vader's redemption
• Jabba's palace, Boba Fett, the sarlacc pit
• The Battle of Endor (space + ground simultaneously)
• "Luke, I am... your father" → "I know"
• Yoda's death

Why it's not higher: The Ewoks. (They're not as bad as the reputation. They're not as good as Lawrence Kasdan wrote them — they were originally Wookiees.)

5. Revenge of the Sith (2005) — The Best Prequel

Director/Writer: George Lucas

Sith is the prequel that finally landed. Anakin's fall, Order 66, the duel on Mustafar, the birth of Luke and Leia, the rise of the Empire — Lucas had all his pieces and the third try paid off.

What works:

• The Order 66 sequence (Williams's "Padmé's Ruminations" cue is a masterpiece)
• Anakin and Obi-Wan on Mustafar
• Palpatine's seduction of Anakin via the Plagueis story
• The intercut Vader-birth / twins-birth ending
• Ian McDiarmid finally cut loose as the Emperor

Why it's not higher: The dialogue still sometimes lands with a thud, and the Anakin-Padmé scenes never recovered from Attack of the Clones.

6. The Force Awakens (2015) — The Reboot

Director: J.J. Abrams • Writers: Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams, Michael Arndt

A nostalgia-engine reboot that mostly works because of its cast — Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, and a returning Harrison Ford giving one of his best performances since the 1980s.

What works:

• Rey, Finn, Poe, and BB-8 as a new central trio
• Han Solo's emotional through-line and death
• The Starkiller Base finale (despite being a Death Star retread)
• The "It's not real" lightsaber moment for Kylo Ren

Why it's not higher: It's a brilliant cover song. The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker couldn't sustain what Force Awakens set up.

7. The Last Jedi (2017) — The Polarizer

Director/Writer: Rian Johnson

The most divisive Star Wars film ever made. Critics gave it 91%. Audiences gave it 41%. Both reactions are correct.

What works:

• Luke Skywalker's reluctant-Jedi-master arc and final astral projection battle
• The throne room fight (one of the saga's best lightsaber scenes)
• Vice Admiral Holdo's hyperspace kamikaze — the single most visually arresting shot in Star Wars
• Daring tonal experimentation in a franchise that rarely allows it

Why it's polarizing: Rian Johnson's character choices for Luke (and the death of Snoke without backstory) broke faith with a sizable portion of the fanbase. Whether you love or hate it depends on how much you wanted The Force Awakens's mysteries paid off.

8. The Clone Wars (2008) — The Animated Pilot

Director: Dave Filoni

The theatrical pilot for the Clone Wars TV series. Released as a film, it functions more as a 90-minute episode. The TV show that followed is excellent — the film itself is a rough launch.

9. The Phantom Menace (1999) — The Comeback That Wasn't

Director/Writer: George Lucas

The most-anticipated movie of the 1990s. The result is a film with extraordinary set-pieces (Duel of the Fates, the pod race) crushed under wooden child acting and Jar Jar Binks.

What works:

• Darth Maul's silent menace and the Duel of the Fates lightsaber duel
• The pod race sequence (still a special-effects landmark)
• Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn
• John Williams's "Duel of the Fates" — possibly the best track in the entire saga

Why it's so low: Jake Lloyd as young Anakin. Trade Federation politics. Jar Jar.

10. Attack of the Clones (2002) — The Weakest Prequel

Director/Writer: George Lucas

The romance scenes are infamously bad. The film's best half (Obi-Wan's noir Kamino investigation) is grafted onto its worst half (Anakin and Padmé's "I don't like sand" courtship). The Geonosis arena battle is fun. The Yoda lightsaber fight changed Star Wars forever, for better and worse.

11. Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) — The Misfire

Directors: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (fired) → Ron Howard

A troubled production. Lord and Miller were fired with 75% of the film shot. Ron Howard took over and re-shot most of it. The result is a competent, unmemorable Han Solo origin story that flopped at the box office and killed Disney's "anthology film" plan.

It's not bad. It just doesn't justify its own existence.

12. The Rise of Skywalker (2019) — The Botched Landing

Director: J.J. Abrams • Writers: J.J. Abrams, Chris Terrio

The most disappointing entry in the saga. Rise of Skywalker tried to walk back every interesting choice The Last Jedi made, brought Palpatine back without setup, and crammed enough plot for three films into 142 minutes.

The Rey-Kylo dyad, Ian McDiarmid's return, and a few standalone moments work. The film as a whole does not.

This is the Star Wars movie that made the saga need a creative reset — which it's now getting via Andor, The Mandalorian, and the upcoming New Jedi Order.

How the Trilogies Rank

The original trilogy wins every metric. The sequel trilogy has higher peaks (Force Awakens) but lower lows (Rise of Skywalker with audiences). The prequels are the most divisive — Gen Z has rehabilitated them online while millennial critics still rank them lowest.

The Best Star Wars Movie by Decade

Where to Start If You've Never Watched Star Wars

If you're new to the saga, our Star Wars Watch Order Guide covers all six recommended viewing paths. The short version:

• First-time viewer: Release order (1977 → 2019)
• Returning rewatcher: Chronological (Phantom Menace → Rise of Skywalker)
• Skip-the-bad-parts: Original trilogy + Rogue One + Revenge of the Sith
• In a single day: Empire + Rogue One + A New Hope (the "perfect Saturday")

Naming Characters in Each Film's Era

Each Star Wars film locks in a specific naming aesthetic. If you're writing OCs set in any given era:

• Original trilogy era (0 BBY – 4 ABY): see our Imperial Names Guide, Rebel Pilot Generator
• Prequel era (32 – 19 BBY): see our Jedi Names Guide, Clone Trooper Names Guide
• Sequel era (34 – 35 ABY): see our Sith Apprentice Generator and the Best Jedi Names Guide
• Rogue One / Andor era (5 – 0 BBY): see our Star Wars Last Names Guide and Human Names Guide

For an era-by-era breakdown of how naming conventions shift across the saga, see the Complete Star Wars Naming Guide and the BBY/ABY Dating System Guide.

The Bottom Line

The Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars movie ever made, and likely will be for as long as the franchise exists. A New Hope is the most important. Rogue One is the best of the Disney era.

Return of the Jedi is the most underrated. The Last Jedi is the most polarizing. And The Rise of Skywalker is the cautionary tale that defines what Disney is now trying to fix.

If you only watch one Star Wars film, watch Empire. If you only watch two, add Rogue One. If you watch three, end on A New Hope and let yourself enjoy the ride that started it all.

That's the saga, ranked.