Watching Star Wars With Kids For The First Time

I didn’t plan on watching Star Wars with kids for a long time. My son just turned five, but after our recent trip to Disney World, he became obsessed. So I started his Jedi training. I didn’t want to rob him of some of the bigger moments in the movies by reading the books or by a friend telling him.

After starting, I began seeing people on Social Media experiencing Star Wars for the first time, and I regret not capturing our moments as well.

But I wanted to reflect on what we’ve watched so far and on his thoughts so far. So, this is my story of watching Star Wars with kids.

My Jedi History

I was only a month old when Return of the Jedi came out. Luckily for me, my brother and sister were much older, and they had not only experienced them all, but they also kept the candle burning for Star Wars.

I remember watching the VHS tapes growing up. Memories of trying to decide which one to start, popping in Empire Strikes Back in the VHS player, and sitting on the floor in front of my dad’s bed with his blue bedspread wrapped around me. Like most fans, I wore those tapes out.

I loved reading the Star Wars books and playing the games. In fifth grade, I attempted to write my first Star Wars novel, and it might still be my best work.

Things slowly faded as I grew older, but it’s still a part of me. I made my wife and friends go with me when the new Star Wars movies came out. Hell, I even came up with what I thought might be a better version of Episode 9 than what we got.

When my son was born, I introduced him to Star Wars, but I didn’t push it. He knew a little bit; he watched Young Jedi Adventures when he was two or three and liked it. He had a few books that we would read at night, but he hadn’t become engrossed in them.

The Catalyst For Watching Star Wars With Kids and The Real Jedi Order

Then we went to Disney World.

On our first visit to the park, we followed the crowd, thinking everyone was headed to Slinky Dog Dash, but in reality, they were headed to Rise of the Resistance. Just traveling through the Star Wars area made my son perk up.

We skipped through Galaxy’s Edge to get onto the Slinky Dog ride, and the entire time, my son just wanted to get back to Star Wars. Once we did, we got treated to a Kylo Ren visit. After that, we rode the Falcon ride and met Darth Vader.

I didn’t think anything of it until we got home, and my son wanted the Darth Vader costume we had bought at the Party City closeout last year. He had never worn it before, but now, he couldn’t take it off. My two-year-old got obsessed with Stormtroopers and Darth Vader, too.

I wanted to start showing them the movies to see how they would take it. That left me with a question. How would I tackle the series? In my heart, I know you should go in release order, but I worried they wouldn’t get into them since the movies were so old. They wouldn’t find them as flashy.

But they wanted Darth Vader and Stormtroopers. The only correct answer felt like A New Hope.

Star Wars – A New Hope for Focus

One night during dinner, I put on A New Hope to see how they would take to it.

My oldest didn’t look away from the screen the entire time.

Well, that’s not really true; both kids would shout at me as they saw characters on the screen and look to see how I was reacting. Darth Vader and Stormtroopers got the biggest shout, but Princess, Chewie, and R2 also got enormous fanfare.

I honestly couldn’t believe how into it my four (at the time) and two-year-olds were, focused very much on the screen.

We watched the movie in chunks that first time. I didn’t want them watching too much and missing out on playtime. My oldest looked disappointed when I turned it off, but he quickly ran to get his Vader costume and started role-playing.

Once we finished the movie, they basically lived in a galaxy far, far away. They found ways to turn all their toys into Star Wars toys. Magnetic tiles became TIE fighters. Old lightsabers we got years ago came out. My two-year-old wouldn’t go anywhere without two lightsabers.

They asked what happened to Ben, but they didn’t have many other questions. So after a few days, we moved on.

The Empire Strikes Back at Me

I don’t remember how I found out about Luke’s lineage, but I didn’t want it to get ruined for my son. I wasn’t sure they were old enough to understand it all, but I figured they were so into it that I should try.

We started Empire Strikes Back the week after. The movie still mesmerized them. They still shouted when Darth Vader came on. Things seemed to be moving along. My wife even started asking questions. I don’t think she had watched much in the years and didn’t know all the details of the story.

My kids got a little bored when Yoda showed up, which surprised me. I think that twist had been ruined by a book we had read before, but that one felt a little minor compared to what was to come. I was shocked because I had always wanted to train as Luke did during this section. I thought they might take off and start rolling around, but they weren’t here for Luke.

Like before, I split the movie up into chunks. For the second chunk, we set up our projector outside and put the film on because the weather felt too perfect. My youngest checked out about halfway. He wanted to play with his lightsabers more than anything.

My oldest grew worried about 3PO when he got shot in Cloud City. He didn’t trust Lando from the start, and he kept asking when Darth Vader would come back. When Vader shows up at dinner, he got excited and worried at the same time.

When we got done with dinner, we were too close to the reveal to end it, so I let it roll. I wanted to record my son’s reaction when Vader told Luke the truth, but it had gotten too dark outside. But that’s okay, because he didn’t understand at all.

The reveal didn’t shock him; he was just like, “Okay.”

I couldn’t believe it as it happened, but now I realize I think he was probably too young to understand. He also struggled with Han getting frozen and why. I tried to explain, but he doesn’t understand owing money yet-haha.

Still, his love for the Dark Lord continued (and slightly scared me, as I always liked and rooted for the good guys).

We moved on.

Return of the Jedi – a Trilogy Complete

I had heard this was a good place to insert Episodes 1-3 before we finish the original trilogy. Then we get like a flashback to how we ended up here. I felt tempted to do it, but my kids just wanted more Darth Vader. In fact, when I mentioned we could watch Darth Vader as a kid before he became Darth Vader, they weren’t interested.

We started Return of the Jedi, and it went pretty uneventfully. They didn’t ask many questions, except, “Why does Darth Vader want his mask off?” Also, “What is Luke burning?”

My son didn’t like the Ewoks, which surprised me a little. But then I realized that he didn’t like them because they were beating up the Stormtroopers. I wonder if they would like the Ewok movies, but I’m not brave enough to revisit those yet. I remember loving them when I was little, but I’m not sure I would vouch for my movie taste back then.

My oldest told me he felt sad that Darth Vader died. He also asked me if he was a good guy or a bad guy. I tried to explain that Vader had been a bad guy for most of the movie, but he turned good at the end. I didn’t think getting into the entire theory of balancing the force would go over well, so I saved that for later.

Return of the Jedi was the first Star Wars movie they asked to rewatch right away. Besides getting sad that their favorite character died, I think they loved it.

The Phantom Menace Becomes a Favorite

My son resisted Phantom Menace for a while because he didn’t want to see Darth Vader as a kid. Still, I felt like it would be better to start this trilogy next.

I thought watching it, he would go wide-eyed for Darth Maul. He didn’t, although he did like Darth Maul. My youngest loved the double-sided lightsaber, though. But Maul couldn’t steal their hearts as Vader did.

Instead, he liked Jar Jar. Now, look, I’m not going to go out here and beat Jar Jar down. He was annoying, but he was part of the story. He was added in for the kids, and my kid liked him, so I think that’s a win. I also believe Ahmed Best got so much crap about it, which wasn’t fair to him. He did the best he could with the material he had.

Honestly, I thought the story got a little too hard for my kids to follow. They couldn’t understand the plot, what with trade wars and queens who were also handmaids. I kind of expected that based on his reaction to The Empire Strikes Back’s twist. But they loved the movie. I think they enjoyed Jar Jar and the lightsaber fights the most. They got into the pod racing scene, as well.

My son has asked to rewatch this movie more than any other.

Attack Of The Clones and the War of Attention

Then we got to my least favorite movie of them all, Attack of the Clones. It turns out, it’s my son’s least favorite as well. He stopped paying attention very early on. I’m pretty sure he didn’t even meet Jango before he gave up.

I’ve even offered to skip through most of the boring stuff and get him to action scenes, but he doesn’t want to.

With this stoppage, I didn’t feel like we could move on to Revenge of the Sith since he might need to know some stuff that happens in Clones.

After a day or two of no new Star Wars, he finally asked for some more. I didn’t know what to put on since we were kind of at a standstill, so I tried the Clone Wars cartoon.

He has gotten very invested in the Clone Wars.

I recently saw a video that says you should start kids with Clone Wars, so they get invested in the characters, and then begin Episode 4. I wish I had seen this first; I might have tried it. However, we started this all because my kids wanted to see Darth Vader, so that wouldn’t have quenched their thirst.

Clone Wars helped satisfy my kids’ desire for armor-clad characters, though. Plus, I hadn’t watched all of them either, so I’ve been looking forward to watching some of these later ones.

The Force Awakens A New Interest

After a week or two of Clone Wars, my kids started asking about Kylo Ren. He appeared in a couple of their books, so they asked if we could watch one of his movies.

So, I started The Force Awakens.

This one sucked my son back in. He watched the entire thing. He liked the new and returning characters. He loved Kylo Ren and how scary he looked. He hasn’t taken over the title from Vader, but he is up there in favorite characters.

As we got close to the major character’s death, I recorded him. I wanted to get his reaction on camera. When it happened, he just looked deflated. He didn’t say anything for the longest time, so I stopped recording. As soon as I did, he admitted her couldn’t believe that Han had died.

It was one of the strongest reactions I’ve seen from him regarding these movies. It was heartbreaking.

Luckily, he recovered just like Rey did and got into the final showdown.

What’s Next

There’s still so much to cover. I figure we’ll watch the rest of the movies, although I’m scared to show him Revenge of the Sith, as it has such dark moments. I also think the emotions that led Anakin down that path might be hard for him to understand, but he has surprised me before.

I might save that movie for last.

Thoughts About It All

While I’m mostly surprised, I also have regrets. I wish I could have pushed these first-time viewings until later in their lives. I don’t think the emotional impact landed as well as I’d hoped through it all.

But I’m also surprised by how much they have attached to these movies. They know the characters and vehicles. They have found something they are excited about. While I might not have gotten the shocked reaction in Empire, the sadness in The Force Awakens hit me.

That said, I’m excited to have something for my kids to be excited about. Nothing has lasted as long as Star Wars has so far. More than that, my eldest, who always wants toys but only plays with them for a few days, has really been playing with his new Star Wars toys (his birthday occurred in the middle of all of this, so he got new stuff to play with). I love that we can connect on it as well, since it was such a big part of my life.

My wife has also picked up on a lot more of Star Wars than she might have. I dragged her to premieres with me, but she never really knew the whole story. It’s fun for me to answer her questions.

The Force Is Strong

I’m glad we started on this journey. I have greatly enjoyed watching Star Wars with my kids. We’ve had a great time with it all. We’re going to keep watching, and I plan to write about what happens in the next few movies.

We started with the release order, but I mentioned others. What do you think is the correct order to watch Star Wars in? Let me know in the comments or on social media.

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