Since filmmaker George Lucas introduced audiences to the ways of the Jedi with Star Wars (now titled A New Hope) in 1977, the chronicles of that galaxy far, far away have grown to 11 movies, nine animated shows, five TV series, and a slew of non-canon shows, miniseries, video games, books, and other media. Even if you just stick to the canon stuff, it can be overwhelming, especially if you're trying to figure out how to watch Star Wars in order. But before we dive in, we'll emphasize that there really isn't a "correct" viewing order. There are several ways to enjoy the Star Wars universe as you proceed along your Jedi journey, and you may even be able to create your own method. The prequel trilogy dropped in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and the sequel trilogy hit theaters in the 2010s. Various standalone films were released intermittently throughout this timeline, offering fans opportunities to explore specific characters and events more deeply.

The following contains spoilers for episode three of'Star Wars: Visions' and episode seven of'What If...?' Back in the days when DVD was king, I remember there was a trend of making animated tie-ins for live-action franchises. There were direct-to-video features for Chronicles of Riddick, Van Helsing and, the most famous project of them all, The Animatrix. Nearly 20 years later, streaming reigns supreme and services like Disney seem to be returning to the idea, but bigger and grander with shows like Marvel's What If…? and Star Wars: Visions. Visions, premiering this week, is probably the more ambitious of the two, enlisting talent from various Japanese anime studios to create short films about different aspects of the Star Wars universe. The list includes juggernauts like Trigger (Kill la Kill, Promare) Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Haikyu!!) and Science SARU (Devilman Crybaby, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!). Unlike The Animatrix, Lucasfilm was content to mostly hand over the reins to these studios, creating shorts that differ in tone, style and, most notably, continuity.

This article has spoilers for just about the entire Star Wars universe. When it comes to fictional portrayals of artificial intelligence technology, the Star Trek universe stands head and shoulders above all others. Series creator Gene Rodenberry's vision for the far future seems just as prescient today, in the era of advanced deep learning, as it did in the 1960s when he unveiled it. Unfortunately, this article is about the AI in Star Wars. Before I go off the rails, I should point out that I'm a light saber-wielding Star Wars fanatic.

Purchases you make through our links may earn us a commission. It's an exciting time to be a Star Wars fan. New episodes of The Clone Wars are hitting Disney each week, The Rise of Skywalker arrives on digital March 17, and Lucasfilm just announced an entirely new era of Star Wars--The High Republic--that will explore the universe hundreds of years before the Skywalker saga takes place. There have never been more ways to get into Star Wars--an ever-expanding universe of mythic fantasy and rich spectacle. If you're feeling especially ambitious, check out the timeline of "canon" media on Wookieepedia for a fairly comprehensive overview of everything Star Wars has to offer: comic books, novels, video games.

In 1983, millions of unsold cartridges of the Atari game ET The Extra Terrestrial were secretly buried in a concrete-covered landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Thanks to extremely rushed development and alleged interference from Universal Pictures, the movie tie-in was one of the worst video games ever made, and a mass grave was the only option for the poor, unwanted cartridges. Unfortunately, like movies adapted from games, games adapted from movies are often bad. Historically, this has not been the result of too much interference from the movie studios that own the licences, but too little. Promising pop-culture properties such as Transformers, Robocop and Harry Potter have often been farmed out to contracted development studios that are then given far too little time to make anything half decent. The forthcoming Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, however, has better prospects than most.

The most interesting character in Solo is a robot. L3-37, voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag), is a free-thinking, loud-mouthed Droid who introduces an entirely new concept into the Star Wars universe: robot rights. From the beginning, Droids like R2-D2 and C-3PO were presented as beings with thoughts and personalities of their own. But they also served masters and faced blatant anti-Droid sentiment, like the barkeep who refused to serve their kind in Episode IV. And they were forced to obey humans through restraining bolts, which limited their cognitive functions.

Millions of fans all over the world are eagerly anticipating this week's release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the eighth in the series. At last we will get some answers to questions that have been vexing us since 2015's The Force Awakens. Throughout the franchise, the core characters have been accompanied by a number of much-loved robots, including C-3PO, R2-D2 and more recently, BB-8 and K2-SO. While often fulfilling the role of wise-cracking sidekicks, these and other robots also play an integral role in events. Interestingly, they can also tell us useful things about automation, such as whether it poses dangers to us and whether robots will ever replace human workers entirely.

Millions of fans all over the world eagerly anticipated this week's release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the eighth in the series. At last we will get some answers to questions that have been vexing us since 2015's The Force Awakens. Throughout the franchise, the core characters have been accompanied by a number of much-loved robots, including C-3PO, R2-D2 and more recently, BB-8 and K2-SO. While often fulfilling the role of wise-cracking sidekicks, these and other robots also play an integral role in events. Interestingly, they can also tell us useful things about automation, such as whether it poses dangers to us and whether robots will ever replace human workers entirely.

Star Wars Battlefront II, a new game from Electronic Arts set in the Star Wars universe, is scheduled to be released on Friday. Star Wars Battlefront II, a new game from Electronic Arts set in the Star Wars universe, is scheduled to be released on Friday. The release of a new entry into the Star Wars universe -- be it film, TV series book or video game -- is usually a time of celebration for fans of the decades-old franchise. That hasn't been the case for Star Wars Battlefront II, a video game published by Electronic Arts that's set to be released worldwide on Friday. Electronic Arts, a $4 billion behemoth of the gaming industry, is most well known for its hugely successful sports games like the Madden and FIFA franchises.