10 best Star Wars shows ever, ranked

After Boba Fett’s amazing comeback in The Mandalorian season 2, fans were hyped for The Book of Boba Fett to deliver on the promise that was shown when Boba (Temuera Morrison) and Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) forcefully took over Jabba’s palace in The Mandalorian season 2’s post-credits scene. Instead, Robert Rodriguez delivered the Star Wars equivalent of Spy Kids.

Morrison and Wen are both great performers, but the key problem with this series is that their characters seemed watered down compared to their appearances on The Mandalorian. This show briefly comes to life in episodes 5 and 6, when Pedro Pascal’s Mandalorian essentially takes the spotlight away from Boba. If the entire series had been as good as those two episodes, The Book of Boba Fett wouldn’t be at the bottom of this list.

Star Wars Resistance attempted to do for the sequel films what Star Wars: The Clone Wars did for the prequels. Oscar Isaac even stopped by for a few episodes as Poe Dameron. But instead of focusing on characters from the films, this animated series followed Kazuda “Kaz” Xiono (Christopher Sean), a talented New Republic pilot who was a klutzy spy for the Resistance.

Kaz occasionally has his moments, but he’s one of the most inept heroes in all of Star Wars. And because of the compressed timeline of the sequels, this show’s interactions with the films were kept to a minimum. Some of Resistance‘s best episodes dealt with Kaz’s response to his home world’s destruction in The Force Awakens, or the sense of betrayal his friend, Tam Ryvora (Suzie McGrath), felt when she learned he was a spy. But Resistance just didn’t have the narrative momentum for a long run, and it came to an end after only two seasons.

Where the series starts to go off the rails is with the secondary antagonist, Reva Sevander (Moses Ingram). The scripts didn’t do Ingram any favors by limiting Reva to largely one note: rage. Vivien Lyra Blair had a good turn as the young Leia Organa, and her kidnapping was the only reason why Obi-Wan would come out of exile. It takes some real mental gymnastics to make Obi-Wan’s showdown with Vader line up with what we saw in Star Wars. But that was also one of our favorite parts of the show.

The best thing that Ahsoka has going for it is a terrific performance by the late Ray Stevenson as Baylan Skoll, a former Jedi who has rejected both his former order and the Sith. Baylan is more of an anti-villain than a traditional Star Wars bad guy, which made him incredibly intriguing. Ahsoka herself also gets some of the show’s most memorable scenes when she’s reunited with Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker and forced to relive part of the Clone Wars. When Ahsoka hit upon those special moments, it elevated the entire series.

The only thing holding Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi back from a higher position on this list is the length of the series. With only six episodes comprised of roughly 10-minutes each, it’s just not enough to be considered a full series. But through these six stories, we see the rise of Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) from an infant to a warrior and then a rebel. And on the other side of the story, we witness the slow fall from grace of Count Dooku (Corey Burton) as he turns away from the Jedi and joins the Sith.

Tales of the Jedi‘s animation was also on par with the best of The Clone Wars and Rebels. These were only short chapters in the overall saga of the franchise, and yet also essential viewing for anyone who loves Star Wars.

For a show that initially seemed like an afterthought to The Clone Wars, Star Wars: The Bad Batch really came together in its three-season run to tell a long-form story about the fate of the clones. Dee Bradley Baker voiced every male clone on this series, including the members of Clone Force 99 who took in their young clone sister, Omega (Michelle Ang).

The series proved to be a worthy successor to The Clone Wars, with some terrific characterization. Crosshair’s journey from traitor to disillusioned member of the Empire and his subsequent redemption was one of the most powerful character arcs in the entire franchise. This show felt like it could have gone longer than three seasons, but it went out on top.

There were some occasional stumbles on this show. But the overall strength of the series is truly impressive. After an abrupt ending when Disney took over the franchise, The Clone Wars got a chance to wrap up its storyline with a seventh season on Disney+. That led to an amazing ending for the series, and the finale was one of the best Star Wars stories that we’ve ever seen.

Star Wars Rebels also gave the franchise some of its most epic moments to date, including Ahsoka’s confrontation with Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi’s final battle with Maul. That alone makes this show one of the all-time great Star Wars series.

Diego Luna has a compelling turn as the lead character, Cassian Andor, as he slowly becomes radicalized against the Empire. However, Luna is blown out of the water by the performances of Stellan Skarsgård as Luthen Rael and Andy Serkis in a guest role as Kino Loy. The monologues given to Skarsgård and Serkis in Andor‘s 10th episode may be some of the best writing that Star Wars has ever had. That was followed two episodes later by another rousing speech by the late Maarva Andor (Fiona Shaw), who delivered a call to action against the Empire with her final message. She was the first brick in the rebellion.

Andor season 2 is currently in production for a 2025 premiere on Disney+. And if this show can stick the landing with its two-season run, it will cement its place on this list for years to come.