Star Wars Original Trilogy Timeline

What we verified before publishing

Fact-check status: passed

The following claims were verified through Perplexity Sonar before the questions were finalised. The host can reference any of them during play:

• The Star Wars original trilogy consists of three films: A New Hope (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Return of the Jedi (1983).
• Star Wars: A New Hope was released on May 25, 1977, and was originally titled simply Star Wars before being subtitled Episode IV in 1981.
• In release order, the original trilogy films are A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi.
• In chronological story order, the original trilogy appears after the prequel trilogy, with the saga beginning with Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
• Episode IV – A New Hope is chronologically the fourth film in the Star Wars saga, following Episodes I, II, and III.
• The original trilogy was produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by 20th Century Fox, marking the first three films of the Star Wars franchise.
• Return of the Jedi, released on May 25, 1983, was the final film of the original trilogy.
• The prequel trilogy (1999–2005) chronologically precedes the original trilogy (1977–1983), which chronologically precedes the sequel trilogy (2015–2019).
• Luke Skywalker is the central hero of the original trilogy, beginning with his introduction in A New Hope.
• The Star Wars saga begins chronologically with Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) and concludes with Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker (2019).