by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring

While we may not have had a Star Wars movie in over three years, we are living in an age of more Star Wars than ever. Three live action shows so far, plus books, comics, video games, audio dramas, and more are all being released regularly. And while die-hard fans do their best to keep up with all of it, there seems to be a bit of a barrier to entry to get people into the many animated shows set in the Galaxy Far Far Away. There have been seven so far, so here’s a brief overview of each, as well as recommendations for where newbies might want to start. Also, all of these shows are available on Disney+.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2003-2005) and Star Wars: Visions (2021-present)

If you’re more interested in watching cool animation than you are Star Wars lore, these two shows are going to probably be your sweet spot.

The original version of The Clone Wars came out in between the second and third movies in the prequel trilogy. Developed by Gennady Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Primal), and was intended to fill in the gaps between the movies. Depicted as a high action, minimal dialogue series, the 2D animation is clean, yet feels gritty. While there are 25 episodes, the first 20 run about three minutes, and the final five are twelve minutes each, making this the length of one movie in total.

The second season of Visions is on Disney+ as of today and is one of the most interesting and rewarding projects to come out of Lucasfilm in the last decade. While giving some loose parameters, Visions sees animation studios from around the world tell their own Star Wars story, not worrying about continuity or anything, and just using the universe as their playground to reinterpret. The first two seasons have nine episodes each, and each is a self-contained story. Highlights from the first season include “The Duel,” “Tatooine Rhapsody,” and “The Village Bride.”

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008-2020) and Tales of the Jedi (2022-present)

For those who want to like the prequels more.

With 7 seasons and 133 episodes, the 3D animated Clone Wars is by far the most ambitious longform storytelling project Lucasfilm has done on the small screen. Each season consists of some standalone episodes as well as arcs of three to five episodes in length. There are a ton of stories here. They make the prequels, especially Revenge of the Sith, more coherent and more impactful, since there’s a lot more room to develop Anakin and his relationship with Obi-Wan. His padawan (and breakout fan favorite character) Ahsoka Tano is introduced here and watching her grow up is an important part of her journey. The clones also get more development, and there’s a lot explored in the runup to Order 66, and the nature of The Force itself.

As the show goes on, it adds to the moral complexity about war, politics, and other issues, but never straying too far from the pulpy roots of the franchise. There are more comedic episodes and fun throughout, but adults will likely be surprised how much this takes on under the banner of a ‘kid’s show.’ One other aspect about Clone Wars that I love is the genre-hopping the show does. There are heist episodes, an arc with a kaiju that tries to kill Palpatine, and even one with an extended homage to Cube.

Tales of the Jedi debuted last year and offers shorter stories that take place at different points in the timeline. Half of the first season follows Ahsoka before, during, and after the events of the prequels, while the other half follows Count Dooku prior to, and during, the events of The Phantom Menace. These episodes are oriented around key character moments and demonstrate the incredible amount of detail being achieved in the animation now compared to 2008.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021-present)

For those who want to learn about the early days of the Empire and love found family stories.

The Bad Batch is a spinoff of The Clone Wars, but the show sets up everything you need to know in its first episode. A special squad of enhanced clones, the Bad Batch, along with their younger sister Omega, are trying to find their way in the galaxy after the fall of the Republic and the Empire’s move away from cloning and towards conscription. There’s a mix of adventures in here as the Bad Batch hop around, but the core group of characters make for a great family dynamic. I wrote about the second season when it started earlier this year, and these characters have quickly become some of my favorites.

Star Wars Resistance (2018-2020)

This one is for those who want a more lighthearted show and are more curious about the sequel trilogy.

The first season is set prior to the events of The Force Awakens and the second season occurs in the aftermath of The Last Jedi. It’s a brightly colored show focused around racing on a deep-sea platform. Like many of these shows, it starts as more kid friendly and begins to shade in darkness over time. There’s a decent look at the rise of the First Order, but it feels like it ended just when it was about to find its footing.

Star Wars Rebels (2014-2018)

This is the one I would recommend to the original trilogy fans, as Rebels is closest in tone and scope to the first three films.

Set in the leadup to A New Hope, Rebels focuses on another found family. They are a small crew, including a former Jedi padawan, just trying to do some good under the nose of the Empire. Over the course of the show’s four seasons, things escalate and they find themselves as part of the Rebel Alliance. Ahsoka shows up here and there, while Ezra, Sabine, Hera, and Thrawn are all introduced in this series. The Ahsoka series looks like it will be picking up on threads from this show more than any other.

The things that might make this my personal favorite of all these shows are the setting and characters, but it also places more of an emphasis on the mystical side of the franchise than any of these other series so far. As Kanan, a former padawan, and Ezra, a Force-sensitive kid, try to figure out what it even means to be a Jedi after the order is no more.