Star Wars

This December, the ninth film in the Star Wars saga, ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (Episode IX),’ will allegedly put an end-cap on the sprawling tale of the Skywalker family: twins Luke and Leia, parents Padme and Anakin (better known as Darth Vader), family-by-marriage Han Solo and his son Ben aka Kylo Ren (with Leia), and possible blood relative Rey (still to be revealed).

It’s been a long, strange journey since the humble beginnings of the first ‘Star Wars’ film in 1977, and with the ever-expanding “official” canon inclusions of several TV shows – both those already seen and those planned as forthcoming from the Disney+ streaming service – things can naturally get a little hazy in terms of what follows what, which piece of the series goes where chronologically, and so forth.

So how helpful of the franchise’s parent company, Disney, then, to provide us with an easy-to-follow graphical representation of the entire saga’s timeline!  Unveiled alongside other franchise-centric announcements at this year’s D23 Expo, the point-by-point is well-detailed – take a look for yourself:

The timeline is broken into three distinct “Ages” along the bottom, roughly syncing up with each trilogy of films.  The “Age of Republic” aligns with the prequel trilogy, the “Age of Rebellion” encapsulates the original trilogy, and the “Age of Resistance” encompasses the newest three (Disney-led) films.

A few other interesting things to point out on the graphic: in addition to the forthcoming ‘The Mandalorian’ TV series, both of the as-yet-untitled other Disney+ series projects – one about Obi-Wan Kenobi starring Ewan McGregor and the other about Cassian Andor starring Diego Luna and K-2SO voicer Alan Tudyk – are featured on the timeline.  Missing, however, is any info on where the planned two-trilogy six future films will slot in.

Most curiously: the timeline starts right at ‘Episode I,’ but has a 13-year “run-off” after the last item on the timeline, this Winter’s ‘Rise of Skywalker.’  Could that film have some sort of time-jump epilogue attached, or is Disney simply making advance room for the future films to easily pop on the line?  Only time will tell.