VOTD: The Complete Canon Timeline Of The 'Star Wars' Universe

With a new Star Wars prequel film set to open in theaters soon, it's easy to be overwhelmed by the decades of films, TV shows, comics, novels, and video games that came before it. But now you don't have to worry about perusing the deep archives of Wookieepedia to learn about the history of the Star Wars universe. A new video compiles the complete Star Wars canon timeline in less than 30 minutes.

The Star Wars universe has one of the richest sci-fi timelines in cinematic history, stretching back thousands of years. And it keeps expanding every year.

Solo: A Star Wars Story will be the latest film to add more detail to the Star Wars timeline, but as an anthology prequel film, it will be merely a blip in the expansive universe. But still, it would be good to know everything that happens before and after Solo.

The amazing folks at Star Wars Explained, the Star Wars-dedicated YouTube channel, cut together an impressive 30-minute video explaining the entire Star Wars canon timeline. Yes, the entire thing — from the birth of the universe to the final moments of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. And while the franchise is only 41 years old, that's several millennia of history to cover in a relatively brief amount of time.

It would take just as long as the video to list all of the properties that this Star Wars canon timeline video pulls from, but this elaborate list of Star Wars movies, TV shows, books, and video games from Indiewire can give you an idea.

In short, this video is an astonishing feat, and we can only give kudos to Star Wars Explained for making it. Now they'll just have to keep making new ones every two years. By 2020, this video will be an hour long.

Solo: A Star Wars Story opens in theaters on May 25, 2018. Star Wars Episode 9 will continue the next chapter in the galactic saga on December 20, 2019.