An Unexpected First-Time Star Wars Viewing Order (4–1 2 3–5 6)

The following is taken from the appendix of my book, Turning to the Dark Side: What Star Wars Teaches Us About How a Good Person Turns Bad. Several readers and reviewers mentioned it to me as one of their favorite parts of the book (and that they planned on adopting it when introducing new audiences to Star Wars). Kevin J. Wetmore, author of The Empire Triumphant: Race, Religion and Rebellion in the Star Wars Films, who previously loved the original trilogy but dismissed the prequels, wrote to me after reading my book, “This book made me re-evaluate the prequel trilogy given Diehl’s approach, and I have gained respect for those films. The highest compliment I can pay is that I now plan to watch the six again (having seen all of them, especially the originals, hundreds of times already), with these interpretations in mind and in the author’s recommended viewing order.”

Enjoy, and beware of spoilers ahead for the original and prequel trilogies of Star Wars.

Star Wars, as a six-movie viewing experience, is defined by the central identity plot twist along Anakin Skywalker’s path. Depending on the order in which they watch the movies, first-time viewers will experience this twist quite differently. Until now, there have been two widely endorsed, and in their own ways valid, approaches:

Release Order (4 5 6–1 2 3): This was the order experienced by anyone who saw Star Wars for the 22 years after the release of the original film and before the release of the…