The 5 worst Star Wars movies and TV shows

Hello there. As great a franchise as Star Wars is, it is not immune to the odd stinker, perhaps more than we fans would care to admit. And in celebration of Star Wars Day, we thought we would pick five of the worst. If you haven’t watched what’s on the list, consider yourself lucky and avoid it like the plague. You can disagree with this list, but let us remind you that Qui-Jon once said, “The ability to speak does not make you intelligent.”

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

If you’ve been a fan of the franchise, you probably already know how bad Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker is. Widely panned by critics and fans when it was released in 2019, the final part of the sequel trilogy brought the Skywalker saga to an end that could be likened to a car crash. 

While we widely agree that the sequel trilogy was all somewhat disappointing, The Rise of Skywalker took things to another level with its incoherence and lazy writing. Notable examples include retconning Rey from a “nobody” in The Last Jedi to a shock reveal as Palpatine’s granddaughter, and bad dialogue like “Somehow, Palpatine returned.” 

And let’s not even talk about how Kylo Ren’s story is essentially a rehash of Anakin Skywalker’s fall to the dark side, eventual redemption, and return to the light side just before dying.

In a movie titled “The Rise of Skywalker”, you would assume the last remaining person from the Skywalker lineage would achieve redemption, live on and figure out a way to rebuild a better Jedi Order together with Rey. But no, we got none of that. Instead, we got someone who wishes she were a Skywalker.

Worryingly, Rey is getting her own movie in Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, and the signs are not good. Production has been plagued with multiple screenwriters leaving, script changes, and countless delays. We’ll be waiting to see if the movie releases as expected in 2027 or if it eventually gets canned like Rogue Squadron and the unnamed Boba Fett movie.

Solo

Okay, calling Solo one of the worst Star Wars movies is probably a bit harsh, but mostly it’s because it failed to live up to expectations and was so boring. It had so much potential. An origin story of one of Star Wars’ most beloved characters? That sounds like cinema gold. But actually, it barely added anything new to the story. Finding out exactly how Han Solo got the Millennium Falcon, did the Kessel Run, and met Chewbacca actually took away some of the mystery that made him cool in the first place.

We already knew he joined the Imperial Navy, got kicked out, won the Millennium Falcon playing cards, saved Chewie, and became a smuggler. And while all of those things were in the movie, put together as a whole, it just wasn’t exciting and ended up coming across as more of a snooze-fest.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

We’d argue Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi runs into problems because several of its key choices don’t line up clearly with what came before in the original trilogy, and the movie doesn’t spend enough time explaining those changes.

Take Luke Skywalker, for example. He’s shown as someone who has cut himself off from the Force and refuses to help, largely because he once considered killing Ben Solo in his sleep. That’s a major shift from how he was portrayed in Return of the Jedi, where he believed even Darth Vader could return to the light. The film explains this in a few short flashbacks, but it doesn’t fully show how he went from that earlier mindset to this point, which makes the change feel incomplete.

The film also spends a large portion of its runtime on the Canto Bight sequence with Finn and Rose Tico. They travel there to find a codebreaker who can disable a tracking system, but they fail, get captured, and the Resistance ends up in a worse position because their plan is exposed. In terms of the main plot, their mission doesn’t achieve its goal and doesn’t change the outcome of the chase.

At the same time, the central conflict involving the Resistance fleet is handled differently. Vice Admiral Holdo keeps her evacuation plan from Poe Dameron, which leads him to organise a mutiny. The film frames Poe as reckless, but it also shows that the lack of communication is what triggers the conflict in the first place, which makes the situation harder to understand.

These are just some of the specific examples where director Rian Johnson’s decisions don’t fully connect with each other. It introduces major character changes and plot threads, but doesn’t give all of them enough development to feel consistent across the entire story. And don’t even get us started on that “superwoman” Princess Leia scene, and how Snoke was killed off as if on a whim.

The Acolyte

The Star Wars franchise has had some lows in recent years. The Skywalker trilogy was not received, and many felt The Book of Boba Fett did not do justice to one of the most beloved characters in the universe. But The Acolyte was proof that it was possible to reach new lows as long as you dug hard enough.

There are so many things wrong that it’s hard to know where to begin. The pacing is laborious and frustrating at times, often teasing viewers with no payoff at the end of episodes. And then there’s the characters, most of which are poorly written with no clear motivation and ridiculous dialogue. But most galling of all is its lack of respect to the source material, mainly because of its flippant introduction of concepts like the lightwhip, vergences, and the twins’ conception by the Force.

That’s not to say it’s without its bright spots. Its morally grey portrayal of the Jedi was a promising plot point that could have led to greater things, as the mysterious Qimir showed potential and was mostly well-liked by fans. Still, most fans did not take to the series kindly, and it was eventually cancelled.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

The Force Awakens takes place some 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi. Released in December 2015, it was easily the most anticipated show of the year. Commercially, the movie was a resounding success, grossing over US$2 billion in total to become the third highest-grossing movie of all time. 

However, many took issue with how closely it mirrored A New Hope. Like the original, The Force Awakens featured an orphan who turns out to be strong in the Force in Rey. And in Kylo Ren, both also featured masked villains. But perhaps most glaring of all is how The Force Awakens also featured a planet-sized superweapon, and how that superweapon also had one critical flaw. 

And don’t even get us started on how nonsensical some parts of the story are. How did The First Order came to be, and how did it become so powerful that it could build a weapon that surpassed even the earlier Death Star? What was The Republic doing all this while? Who were the Knights of Ren? And how useless was Captain Phasma?

Overall, it’s lazy storytelling at best, and insulting at worst.

If you are not convinced and want to see these Star Wars shows for yourself, subscribe to Disney+. Be sure to also check out our list of the worst Star Wars movies and TV shows, and other Star Wars content below.