Star Wars has long been a huge part of pop culture but it's safe to say that in recent years, it's lost part of its luster because of fan reaction to the Sequel Trilogy, which ranged from people loving it to people completely hating it.
Lucasfilm can learn a lot from the reaction to the ST; while it taught some great lessons, it's not as well-loved as Star Wars has been in the past. However, there is still lots of great Star Wars content for fans to devour, with much of it being better than the Sequel Trilogy.
10 Star Wars: Squadrons
Star Wars: Squadrons isn't a game-changing or thought-provoking piece of Star Wars media. The story is rather simple — players play pilots in the post-Battle of Endor Rebel Alliance and Empire, each side trying to stop the other in a very personal battle between an Imperial defector-turned-Rebel commander and the ruthless captain of an Imperial Star Destroyer.
The story presents the conflict between the two sides with no judgment, even humanizing some of the Imperials, a rarity in Star Wars. Beyond that, fans get to fly the cool ships of the Star Wars universe in fun and challenging missions, with some of the best multiplayer campaigns in any Star Wars game ever.
9 Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
EA's Star Wars games weren't well-loved until recently, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a big reason for that. The game tells the story of Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis at the end of the Clone Wars, how he survives Order 66, and more. Fans of the game loved everything about it and it — along with Star Wars: Squadrons — redeemed EA's Star Wars output.
Fallen Order is an unequivocal success, full of great gameplay, memorable characters, and a story that takes fans through an underutilized time in the Star Wars mythos. It was a breath of fresh air during a time when Star Wars wasn't doing so hot.
8 Star Wars: Rebels
Star Wars: Rebels took a little time to get good but once it hit its stride, it got really good. The first few seasons of the show were a little kiddy but as time went on, Dave Filoni and company did a great job of showing the evolution of the Rebellion into the force that fans would see in the Original Trilogy and fleshing out the characters.
With the return of fan-favorites like Ahsoka, Captain Rex, and the re-canonized Grand Admiral Thrawn, Rebels made true believers of fans who were reticent of it, something the Sequel Trilogy proved incapable of, while setting up most of its cast for bold new adventures that Disney and Lucasfilm can turn into new content.
7 The Marvel Comics
With Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm, an important decision was made — everything would now be canon. This meant that all the comics, novels, video games, and TV shows would count just as much as the movies. Marvel, another Disney-owned company, immediately started publishing Star Wars again, putting some of the best writers and artists on the books and it immediately paid dividends.
While not all of it is amazing, Marvel's Star Wars comics have added a lot of wonderful stories to the galaxy far, far away, filling in holes in continuity and fleshing out the movies, telling stories that can't be told elsewhere.
6 The LEGO Star Wars Games
People love LEGOs and the team of the toy brand and Star Wars has been pretty fruitful. Eventually, someone had the great idea of making LEGO Star Wars video games, and a legend was born. The success of the games spurred LEGO to make more video games based on other properties and millions of gamers loved them.
The LEGO Star Wars games retell the stories of the movies but add a dash of tongue-in-cheek humor, making light of plot holes and the often ridiculous nature of the universe, with great gameplay being the cherry on top of the whole thing. Fans await the latest game in the franchise, LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, with bated breath.
5 The Mandalorian
Without The Mandalorian, the Star Wars landscape would be in a very different place right now. The show gave Lucasfilm a win when they needed it the most and fans love the show with a passion that exceeds anything the company has put out since Disney acquired them. Lucasfilm can learn a lot from the show's success and is already putting what it's already learned into effect.
While the show isn't perfect, it's brought together a divided fandom in a way that seemed impossible after the flame wars between sequel defenders and detractors and gave the franchise a massive merchandising juggernaut in Grogu, a character that even people who don't like Star Wars love.
4 Star Wars: The Clone Wars
The Prequel Trilogy went from derided to loved and a big part of that was because of a little show called Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The show fleshed out the time between Attack Of The Clones and Revenge Of The Sith, building on the characters, expanding the lore, and showing fans what the war was like. It also introduced fan-favorite characters like Ahsoka Tano and Captain Rex, characters who would pay dividends down the line.
The show kept getting better and better as it went on, with the 2020 released final season putting the perfect bow on the series. The last four episodes of the show are some of the best Star Wars ever, full stop, showing the Siege of Mandalore and how Order 66 affected the series' original characters.
3 Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic I & II
The Knights Of The Old Republic games are the greatest Star Wars games ever and that's not even debatable. Since the debut of the first game on the Xbox long ago, fans were engrossed by the lore the game set up, the Sith Wars of four thousand years before the movies. Full of great storytelling and characters, the KOTOR games are legendary and fans want them remade.
KOTOR I and II are high water marks that take the trappings of Star Wars and use them to tell completely new stories that have stood the test of time, something the Sequel Trilogy proved completely incapable of doing, and while the gameplay is a bit clunky, they are still well worth the effort of hunting down and playing. Both of them can be found on Steam.
2 Star Wars: Darth Vader
Marvel's Star Wars comics output has been mostly spectacular and the best of it has been the Darth Vader comics. Vader has long been one of the greatest characters in Star Wars and fans were thrilled to read his solo adventures. Writers like Kieron Gillen and Charles Soule have done amazing work on Vader's book, making it the crown jewel of Marvel Star Wars.
The book introduced Doctor Aphra, one of Disney's canon's most beloved new characters, and gave fans exactly what they've always wanted, which is more Darth Vader. The comic hit the sweet spot — fan-favorite character, great writing, and wonderful art — and continues to be some of the best new Star Wars content on the market.
1 Star Wars Legends
For years, between the Original Trilogy and the Prequels, the only way to experience new Star Wars content was what was once called the Expanded Universe and now referred to as Legends since it was de-canonized by Lucasfilm. Legends encompasses decades of stories full of amazing heroes and dastardly villains, pushing the limits of Star Wars.
Disney still prints most of the novels and comics that make up Legends, giving fans who aren't happy with the Sequel Trilogy new characters and different adventures that they can experience, ones that show events from every corner of the Star Wars universe. Legends created new heroes without destroying the old ones, fleshed out the lore, and did bold things with Star Wars that didn't always succeed but were more interesting than anything found in the Sequel Trilogy.