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.

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.

Derpfakes uses the same tools from the controversial porn to make experimental face-swapped movie and TV footage. The account has posted videos from Toy Story, Star Trek, and The Room. Star Wars is also a favorite target because of the recent use of questionable CGI characters to stand-in for aged and deceased actors. The latest post tackles Solo, replacing star Alden Ehrenreich with a young Harrison Ford. The results aren't perfect, but it's impressive for something done with essentially no budget.

The International Space Station hovers a couple hundred miles above the Earth's surface, yet it appears it, or at least one of its patches, is not above commercial plugs. Officials have unveiled the new mission patch for the U.S. national laboratory aboard the ISS that will adorn the apparel of our astronauts. The patch, in the shape of the rebel spaceship Millennium Falcon, includes the silhouettes of the spherical spacecraft called the Death Star that the Galactic Empire and their evil dictator Darth Vader use to blow up entire planets full of innocent people; and three robots from the movie franchise, BB-8, K-2SO and Chopper, meant to symbolize technology. The bots were featured in the two most recently released Star Wars movies, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," chosen over the highly identifiable R2-D2 and C-3PO that people grew to love in the original three films from the late 1970s and early '80s. To cap things off, the bottom of the patch is emblazoned with "Star Wars" and "Lucasfilm."

A small band of heroes willing to take on a daunting foe or die trying. The rag-tag bunch of heroes is diverse, comprised of various races and sexes: a dashing young captain and his strong female counterpart, a humorous robot who has no trouble engaging in combat, and various other side characters. In the end, most of these characters will die for their cause, but they'll strike a major blow against the enemy. Sounds a lot like the new Star Wars movie, Rogue One, doesn't it? In that film a small crew of Rebels led by Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor sneak into the Imperial base at Scariff to steal the Death Star plans.

This weekend marked the opening of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the latest entry in the nearly 40-year-old film series, and the first "standalone" release to take place outside of the episodic Star Wars installments--that is, of course, if you don't count those WTF (Way Too Fuzzy) Ewoks movies. Rogue One, as you likely know by now, tracks a group of Rebels (played by Felicity Jones and Diego Luna, among others) as they attempt to steal information vital to the Empire's brand-new Death Star. Along the way, they witness daring dogfights and catty robots, and occasionally find themselves face-to-face with beloved galaxy-questers from previous Star Wars films. Rogue One Relatives: 10 More Star Wars Standalone Movies Disney Should Make The Alt-Right Hates Rogue One, Because of Course It Does Want to Really Get Rogue One? Read the Prequel Novel Want to Really Get Rogue One? Read the Prequel Novel Want to Really Get Rogue One? Read the Prequel Novel But as Rogue One chugs along to certain box-office domination, we can't help but wonder: Is this latest Star Wars story really necessary? Or is it merely a temporary diversion--an escape pod--from the dauntingly gargantuan ongoing narrative that is the traditional saga? WIRED's Brian Raftery and Angela Watercutter discuss the movie below--and, lest we be accused of Dianoga-like stealth and sneakiness, we should be upfront about the fact that spoilers are everywhere.

In one corner of John Knoll's office at Lucasfilm stand three racks of imposing black computer servers. The sleek 6-foot-tall towers, complete with mechanical switches and fans, flash blue LEDs. Each bears the insignia of the Galactic Empire from Star Wars and a name--Death Star 748, Death Star 749. As impressive and menacing as the machines appear, they aren't real. They're just faceplates wired with Arduino controllers to make the lights blink and flutter like actual computers. They are, in other words, visual effects--and a look into the mind of Knoll, the 54-year-old chief creative officer of Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm's famed VFX arm. They're what made the movies. They come from the machines that spent roughly 13,000 hours rendering digital effects for the three Star Wars prequels, on which Knoll was a lead effects supervisor. The march of Moore's law turned the server farm that created those movies into scrap. "It took a few weeks," Knoll says, shrugging.

You know what movie is seriously pretty fun? You no doubt saw it last year--probably multiple times--and your initial reaction was likely either "OH MAN, BEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME, FINN HEART POE 4-EVA" or "Enh, it's totally fine, too many New Hope nods, Rey is cool tho." Those were the prevailing online attitudes about the movie throughout its winter-long, record-disintegrating box-office run, and they made perfect sense: This was the first Star Wars movie in a decade, and it needed to not only restore what had become a robotic-feeling franchise to greatness, but to also re-energize the base of (admittedly somewhat older) Star Wars devotees who felt the series had already peaked decades ago. The Force Awakens had to be a million different things to a gazillion different fans, including myself, and that may be why, on first viewing, I wasn't overjoyed or underwhelmed. But after a bunch of re-viewings, and a few scene-specific replays upon last week's home-video release, it became clear that, when removed from the suffocating context of huge expectations and attention, The Force Awakens is all it needs to be: Namely, a really good Star Wars movie, with zippy dog-fighting sequences and sly Solo one-liners and some really dope menswear.