SPOILER ALERT: You have been warned.
The original Star Wars trilogy is episodes IV, V and VI of a nine-part series, which creator George Lucas calls The Journal of the Whills, perhaps a reference to those pesky Midichlorians. Lucas took his time making the first two trilogies - working for three years on each film. As Samuel L Jackson says, "Filming Star Wars is weird s**t." Once Lucas sold the franchise to Disney, JJ Abrams produced the final trilogy at two-year intervals, clearly with increasing meddling from Disney bosses who eliminated original thinking after Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi, unceremoniously sacking directors who tried anything inventive. While enjoyable, Solo and The Rise of Skywalker are paint-by-numbers movies, so it's no surprise that box office revenue dipped.

A TRILOGY OF TRILOGIES. From the very start, Lucas claimed that episodes IV, V and VI were the central part in a grand nine-part Skywalker epic. For the final trilogy, JJ Abrams apparently discarded Lucas' original story outline, doing his own thing instead.

• Episode I: The Phantom Menace opened 19 May 1999
• Episode II: Attack of the Clones opened 13 May 2002
• Episode III: Revenge of the Sith opened 19 May 2005
• Episode IV: A New Hope opened 25 May 1977
• Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back opened 21 May 1980
• Episode VI: Return of the Jedi opened 25 May 1983
• Episode VII: The Force Awakens opened 17 December 2015
• Episode VIII: The Last Jedi opened 15 December 2017
• Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker opened 19 December 2019

• The Clone Wars opened 15 August 2008
  
• Rogue One opened 16 December 2016
• Solo opened 24 May 2018

CONTINUITY: Lucas worked to create an over-arching plot for the series, even if character arcs and plot twists will shift for audiences who experience the films in sequence I to IX for the first time. The surprises for them will be different than for those of us who watched them in the order they were made. For example, the relationships between Vader, Luke and Leia will be no surprise. But Anakin's fall will. And Obi-Wan now has a completely different story that redefines his actions in IV. Also, Palpatine becomes the connecting point as a seriously epic villain over all nine films.

LOCATIONS: While Tunisia played Tatooine in episodes I, II and IV, political instability meant that JJ Abrams had to find another stand-in while shooting Episode VII. The desert around Abu Dhabi did the trick, while IX was shot in Jordan. (California's Death Valley has also doubled as Tatooine.) Other locations: Italy, Spain and England became Naboo; Thailand and China appeared as Kashyyyk; Norway played Hoth; Switzerland was Alderaan; and California's Redwood Forest was Endor.

Ewan McGregor's uncle Denis Lawson played Wedge Antilles in IV to VI. Wedge is the only X-wing pilot besides Luke to survive the trilogy (thus the IX cameo). After Lawson visited McGregor on the set of Episode I, McGregor said, "He came up and sat with me, and he met George Lucas and he said, 'George, you're still wearing the same shirt.' And he was, apparently!"

C-3PO and R2-D2 are the only characters who appear in all nine Skywalker saga films, the droids through whose eyes the entire tale is told. Chewbacca is in seven films (eight including Solo). Yoda is in six, as are two characters played by multiple actors: Obi-Wan (McGregor I-III, Guinness IV-VI) and Anakin (Lloyd I, Christensen II-III, Prowse IV-VI, Shaw VI). Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher are in six films. And then there's Palpatine...

Ian McDiarmid played the Emperor at age 100 in V and VI, and stars in the prequels as the younger Palpatine, closer to McDiarmid's actual age (53 when he shot the prequels). "I am 30 years younger in the new version so I'll be more recognisable. Anyway, I think they only cast me because of my long pointed nose. I have played a lot of grotesques because I suppose I look like one." And he's back again as a cloned monster Palpatine for IX, his sixth appearance in the saga.

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