Every Star Wars TV Show, Ranked — From Clunkers to Classics
Two decades into its TV era, Star Wars has launched a galaxy’s worth of series—some stellar, others forgettable—and the heavy hitters aren’t always live-action. The animated adventures often carry the franchise’s sharpest storytelling; here’s what works and what doesn’t.
Star Wars TV has been on a wild 20-year run. Some of it sings, some of it stumbles, and a lot of it proves that animation can hit just as hard (sometimes harder) than live-action. The winners also pop up all over the timeline: prequels, the Empire era, the New Republic. With that in mind, here is every live-action and animated Star Wars series ranked from worst to best, with the good, the bad, and the surprisingly great.
- 16) The Book of Boba Fett (2021)
Set after Return of the Jedi and built on Boba’s improbable survival, this should have been a slam dunk. Instead, the season’s sluggish pace and scattered focus smothered its potential. Temuera Morrison rules, and Boba is an all-timer, but the show never quite locked into a compelling groove.
- 15) Star Wars Resistance
Landing in the sequel trilogy era was always going to be tricky, and Resistance never escaped that gravitational pull. Being animated likely didn’t help with casual viewers either. It isn’t bad so much as it never really grabs you, which is why it’s one of the franchise ’s most overlooked series.
- 14) The Acolyte
The online vitriol (especially aimed at the cast) was out of bounds. Setting that aside, the season itself tried to juggle too much and didn’t deliver the full-on Sith tale it promised. Worse, the finale clearly aimed to kick off a season 2 that never materialized, which leaves season 1 feeling like a setup without a payoff.
- 13) Young Jedi Adventures
Squarely aimed at very young viewers, so temper expectations. That said, it’s charming, and it gives the High Republic some on-screen love we haven’t really seen elsewhere. Not built for everyone, but it does what it sets out to do.
- 12) Star Wars Visions
A bold swing: non-canon, anime anthology shorts from different studios. If the lack of canon kept some viewers away, their loss. Being unbound by continuity lets these stories take creative risks canon shows just can’t, and that freedom is the point.
- 11) Tales of the Underworld
Star Wars has rolled out three Tales Of entries, and this one is the lightest punch. Cad Bane and Asajj Ventress are great characters (Ventress, especially), and there’s fun to be had, but it doesn’t land with the same weight as the other two installments.
- 10) Tales of the Empire
Focused, sharp character work on Barriss Offee and Morgan Elsbeth. You get Morgan’s survivor’s edge after the Nightsisters of Dathomir massacres, and Barriss’s fall, Inquisitor-era choices, and path back toward the light. It adds real texture to both characters.
- 9) Skeleton Crew
A throwback kids-on-an-adventure vibe (think 80s Amblin by way of the New Republic), plus a group of kids lost in the galaxy who cross paths with a Force-sensitive pirate named Jod Na Nawood. Not your standard Jedi/Sith slugfest, and that’s the charm. It’s breezy, weird in a good way, and worth the trip.
- 8) Tales of the Jedi
The strongest of the Tales Of projects. It fills in key blanks with two heavy hitters: Ahsoka Tano’s formative years under Anakin and Count Dooku’s unraveling into the dark. The Dooku material, in particular, reframes his choices and his bond with former apprentice Qui-Gon Jinn.
- 7) Ahsoka
Yes, the show took flak for sometimes sidelining its title character. Also yes: it delivered big. Star Wars Rebels favorites finally made the jump to live-action, including a long-missing Ezra Bridger, and Hayden Christensen’s Anakin returned for a haunting, cathartic reunion with Ahsoka in that trippy World Between Worlds space.
- 6) Obi-Wan Kenobi
Another series dinged for drifting away from its lead at times, but it’s better than the discourse suggests. The show threads the needle between trilogies, gives us young Luke and Leia 10 years after Revenge of the Sith, and stages a raw, necessary reckoning between Obi-Wan and Anakin/Vader. It also lets Obi-Wan be messy, which he needed.
- 5) Star Wars Rebels
Mostly new faces, with cameos from Ahsoka, Rex, Maul, Lando, and more. That was a risk, and it paid off. Rebels nails the suffocating feel of the Empire’s early reign (the Dark Times) and quietly crowned Kanan Jarrus as one of the franchise’s best Jedi. Big heart, big stakes.
- 4) Star Wars: The Bad Batch
This spinoff didn’t need to be as good as it is. By centering on Clone Force 99 and introducing Omega, an unaltered female clone who becomes family ( for Hunter, basically a daughter), the show humanizes the clones in ways The Clone Wars only started. It’s got warmth, bruises, and, rare for Star Wars, a largely happy ending.
- 3) The Mandalorian
Din Djarin and Grogu might be the most universally beloved Star Wars duo since, well, ever. The series proved you can tell gripping stories outside the Jedi/Sith binary, and its cultural footprint is massive enough that the next Star Wars movie is literally titled The Mandalorian and Grogu. Season 3 dipped, sure, but the highs are sky-high.
- 2) Star Wars: The Clone Wars
An early entry that aged into essential viewing. Mostly set between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith (with the final season crossing into Sith), it adds crucial context to Anakin’s fall and the war that broke the galaxy. Season 1 starts a bit slow; after that, it soars.
- 1) Andor
Peak Star Wars. A ground-level rebellion story about people without prophecies or magic blood, centered on Cassian Andor from Rogue One. It exposes the Empire’s machinery of oppression with ruthless clarity and pairs that with razor-sharp writing, direction, and performances. This is the franchise at its most mature and most alive.
That’s the lineup. Disagree with the order? That’s half the fun. Tell me what I whiffed on and what I wildly underrated.