The Star Wars timeline emerges as one of the most comprehensive in media history, encompassing many different eras set in a galaxy far, far away. When the first Star Wars film was released, the timeline was quite simple. The two films that followed the original trilogy made all three films belong to a single era, and there was no additional content from that period. However, over time, this changed with the prequel trilogy, leading to more discussions between Star Wars films.

With Disney's sequel trilogy, Star Wars cinematic films began to represent three distinct eras. Thanks to Lucasfilm's insistence on a transmedia franchise, the expanded content added to the story universe made the timeline even more complex. With the upcoming Star Wars films and series, summarizing the franchise's timeline clearly has become more important than ever.

To better understand the events in the Star Wars timeline, the Battle of Yavin serves as a significant reference point. This battle is the climax of the rebellion-empire conflict in A New Hope, and events in the timeline are classified as before the battle (BBY) and after the battle (ABY). For example, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace takes place 32 years before A New Hope, and thus it is marked as 32 BBY in the timeline.

As we go further back, we encounter the "Dawn of the Jedi" era. This period was introduced by Lucasfilm at Star Wars Celebration 2023 and takes the franchise further back than ever before. The Dawn of the Jedi story, directed by James Mangold, will take place at least 25,000 years before A New Hope, and this film will explore the origins of the Star Wars universe. Lucasfilm confirmed the expansion of the Star Wars timeline by announcing this film at the 2023 event.