Disney+ is the home for all things Star Wars, so what do you watch when you’ve seen all of the Star Wars films more than once?
Although nothing can compare exactly to the Star Wars franchise, there are films that can come close to the series. If you’re a diehard Star Wars fan, you’ve seen all of the Star Wars films, behind-the-scenes featurettes, and any major release related to the franchise. So, what do you binge next?
For sci-fi, fantasy, action, and beyond fans, the task of finding something else to enjoy can be a bit tricky since your expectations are set so high. However, there are some amazing films out there that you can discover, some of which even feature cast members from the Star Wars films. From hidden gems to indie releases and blockbusters, prepare to get your movie fix.
Turn on your television and get ready to stream our top 10 picks for best films for Star Wars fans on Disney+ below.
1. Empire of Dreams
If you haven’t checked out Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy, this is a documentary that gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the creative process behind A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. Kevin Burns created the 2-and-a-half-hour long documentary.
The original edited documentary was part of the DVD box set for the Star Wars trilogy that was released in 2004. A portion of the documentary also aired on A&E. However, Disney+ has the exclusive full-length documentary. Amazon Prime Video also currently offers a shortened version of this documentary. The film is done chronologically and first begins with George Lucas’ career in the film industry. It also features outtakes and audition tapes of the stars. Not only are the cast and crew interviewed, but this also gives a look at how the films were perceived then in terms of social impact, politics, and beyond.
In 2003, Jim Ward of Lucasfilm marketing approached Kevin Burns with the concept. Previously, Kevin Burns directed other behind-the-scenes features and was the perfect fit for this job. Before filming, he watched the Star Wars films roughly 20 to 30 times through.
“I don’t like to do ‘Making of’ documentaries”, he told Star Wars NZ. “I do biographies; human stories”. As such, the starting point was not the usual collection of behind-the-scenes footage, but was instead a script, a story to be followed and focused on. The BTS material is still there, indeed watching ‘Empire of Dreams’, the viewer will be privy to out-takes, audition tapes, and pre-production celluloid never before publicized, but it will be woven amongst the reflections of Harrison, Mark, Carrie and friends, and interspersed with George’s recollection of the adventure.”
2. Guardians of the Galaxy
Think of Guardians of the Galaxy as the Marvel version of Star Wars with more comedy and no droids. The film follows space traveler Peter Quill (portrayed by Chris Pratt). Peter steals a priceless orb that finds him being hunted by some of the most ruthless bounty hunters, not to mention the government officials and other folks that are trying to get their hands on the orb. In order to avoid the baddest of all of the bounty hunters, Ronan.
Peter is forced to work with Rocket (Bradley Cooper), a raccoon that talks and is always up to no good and mischief. He never follows directions. Rocket is best friends with Groot who is a tree that only says “I am Groot,” yet Rocket somehow understands everything that he says. Drax the Destroyer (played by Dave Bautista), a giant blue creature who is hellbent on getting revenge from Ronan for his family’s brutal murder. Finally, there’s Gamora (portrayed by Zoe Saldana) who is the adopted daughter of Thanos, the worst of any villain. Although she doesn’t enjoy him or what he’s done, she still has a soft spot for him, although circumstances may change. Gamora is a green human-like creature and the last of her kind, something that Peter instantly falls for.
The team later discovers that the orb has unlimited power and it poses a threat to life itself, they are then in charge of protecting it and making sure that it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands, no matter what.
3. Avengers: Infinity War
Although you don’t need to watch all of the Marvel movies to understand one of the best in the franchise, Avengers: Infinity War, it’s a great franchise to get into. It isn’t an exact match to Star Wars, it does feature heroes, good vs., evil, droids, the future, technology, and so much more.
This film focuses on the Avengers: Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), James “Rhodey” Rhodes / War Machine (Don Cheadle), Peter Parker/Spiderman (Tom Holland), Black Panther/King T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), Vision (Paul Bettany), Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Okoye (Danai Gurira), Shuri (Letitia Wright), (Dave Bautista), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Josh Brolin, and Star-Lord/Peter Quill (Chris Pratt). If you’ve already watched our suggestion of Guardians of the Galaxy, you know a portion of the characters already.
This may seem daunting as there are so many characters to unravel. However, it is basic: good vs. evil with supernatural powers, space, and technology. The team attempts to stop Thanos from collecting all six Infinity Stones, the most powerful supernatural entities. Thanos would use the stones to destroy Earth and human life. The characters are based off of the Marvel comic books and have similar success to Star Wars in terms of a dedicated fan base and extremely memorable characters. Of course, after that, you’ll want to follow up with Avengers: Endgame, and then series like WandaVision or The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
4. Mars Inside Space X
If you actually love space and technology, this movie is a real-life documentary that tells the story of the company SpaceX. Filmmakers went behind the scenes to witness how the company plans to have astronauts visit the planet of Mars, something that has not yet been accomplished. The movie was filmed over the span of three years and will feature the company’s founder Elon Musk as well as his engineering team as they work through ideas on how to get humans to Mars.
Aside from the triumphs, this also showcases the downfalls and failures of the team, even some major setbacks that cost the company big time. It is an extremely interesting look at the space industry. Aside from documentaries, SpaceX as a company is extremely secretive and does not offer visits to just anyone. This film examines what it takes to be in this industry and how to achieve the unthinkable.
The documentary was originally for National Geographic, a company that now Disney owns. This movie shows that this insane idea could actually be possible in the near future and in our lifetimes.
“At that time I had to allocate a lot of capital to Tesla and SolarCity, so I was out of money,” Musk told Wired of his first attempt at getting people to Mars. “We had three failures under our belt. So it’s pretty hard to go raise money. The recession is starting to hit. The Tesla financing round that we tried to raise that summer had failed.”
5. Tron
Both the classic and the 2010 remake of Tron: Legacy are available to stream on Disney+. If you’re not familiar with Tron, it takes place in an arcade game. This is as close to Star Wars as you can get with futuristic elements, droids, unforgettable characters, supernatural abilities, and beyond.
Tron: The Classic was released in 1982 and was truly ahead of its time. The film stars Jeff Bridges as a computer engineer and game developer Kevin Flynn. He discovers that an executive at his company stole his work and tries to hack his system. Kevin Flynn is transported into the game where he has to battle against his rival Ed Dillinger’s character, Sark. Not only does he have that adversary but also the Master Control Program (where Tron and Yori come into play). Kevin becomes a hope for the hopeless and oppressed characters inside the program that were forced to live off of the grid.
Meanwhile, with the updated Tron film, more animation and computer graphics advancements were made. The quality of the film is nothing short of perfection. Bridges returns as an older Kevin Flynn. The film stars Sam (Garrett Hedlund), who is the son of Kevin. Kevin disappeared and has been missing for most of Sam’s life, leaving his massive computer empire business to him.
However, Sam is only involved in hacking his father’s former business. He is drawn to a retro arcade he attended with his father before his disappearance. After he entered Flynn’s Arcade he was transported into the same game world. He soon discovers that his father has been trapped in the system for twenty years. This movie features fantasy, action, drama, technology, and so much more.
6. WALL-E
This is the perfect wholesome family movie with a space background. WALL-E was created by Disney and Pixar and follows a robot around on his journey to make friends and discover Earth.
WALL-E (also known as Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-class) is all alone on Earth. His mission in life is to create boxes of trash to clean up the unhabitable planet. After 700 years doing the same job, he’s become more of a person than a robot with feelings and emotions. The fellow robot EVE was sent to check on the status of Earth and her prime directive is to locate and bring back any live plants or life back to her space station and master. EVE is all about her job and at first, has little to no socialization or emotions. After spending time with WALL-E the two become fast friends and WALL-E falls in love with EVE.
Meanwhile, humans are unhealthy and on a spaceship that lets them eat, drink, and watch films all day with little movement or action. Robots take care of their every whim, similar to EVE. It takes WALL-E and EVE’s visit to shake things up and make the people realize just what they are missing in life. All the while, EVE And WALL-E defeat an unexpected evil villain and try to save not only Earth but the humans as well.
7. Tomorrowland
Tomorrowland is based around Disney’s theme park of the same name. This would be a perfect fit for any Star Wars fan and is great for the entire family. It stars George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy, Tim McGraw, Kathryn Hahn, and Keegan-Michael Key.
The film begins when we meet a boy named Frank Walker (older version portrayed by George Clooney) back in 1964. He attended the world’s fair to show off his prototype jet pack to Nix (Hugh Laurie). However, it wasn’t fully functioning so he was later approached by a little girl named Athena (Raffey Cassidy) who hands him a special pin with a “T” on it and told him to go on Walt Disney’s “It’s A Small World” ride that was actually at the world’s fair in real life. He sneaks onto the ride and is transported into Tomorrowland, a future and sci-fi world that features people with real working jet packs, droids, flying homes, and more.
The viewers then meet teenager Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) who keeps sabotaging the scheduled demotions of a NASA launch site, where her father Eddie (Tim McGraw) worked at and will most likely lose his job. She is caught by authorities after her latest attempt and once she is let go she discovers the same “T” pin in her belongings. Once she touches it, she is transported into the Tomorrowland world. Unfortunately, the battery ran out before she could finish exploring and she was transported back home.
The film follows Casey working with Athena and Frank to save the world as we know it and prevent the catastrophic future predictions from happening.
8. Mulan (2020)
When you hear Mulan, you’re most likely thinking of the animated singalong version. This live-action version is for adults and older children as it is packed with action sequences, mystery, war, and even superpowers. While there were mixed reviews from critics and fans, the movie is certainly worth a watch because it is nothing like the original animated children’s movie.
If you enjoy fight scenes, this is the film for you as it features numerous forms of fighting and combat like martial arts, Tai Chi, sword fighting, hand to hand, aerial work, and more. The plot follows a young woman named Mulan who disguises herself as a man to join the army to take the place of her ailing father. Unfortunately for some, the comedy is not there as this is a dramatic action film and the sidekicks of cricket and dragon (originally portrayed by Eddie Murphy) are not present in this adaptation. The only thing that remains is the plot of a woman joining the army in place of her injured father.
“So what we realized as we’re looking through it is that while it’s a story of an individual finding their true self and finding their inner truth, but ultimately she’s doing that in service of the Confucian ideal so she is finding a way to do her duty but she can’t do it in the way that young girls were normally expected to, so she finds her own way against the norms of society but ultimately fulfills her destiny,” producer Jason Reed explained of the film’s concept to Collider.
9. Man In Space
If you’re a fan of history, Disney nostalgia, and space, this is the perfect binge for you. Walt Disney was always fascinated by space, as evident from Tomorrowland, his rides, and his technology. Disney released this short movie as a single episode of Walt Disney’s Disneyland series, which first aired on March 9, 1955. This short film became a huge success and influenced millions to learn about space, something that some may have forgotten about.
The episode was directed by Ward Kimball, who decided to use animation to showcase the history of space travel. The short also featured two of the best scientific minds at the time, Willy Ley and Wernher von Braun (dubbed the “Walt Disney of the space industry”). They combined the two to have children and adults alike understand complicated space terminology and concepts.
It was Walt’s decision to include humor on the show. “There are two sides to go on this—comedy interest and factual interest. Both of them are vital to keep the show from becoming dry. You need a good balance to keep it from becoming too dry and corny,” he said in a production meeting according to D23.
During the original airing, over 40 million people tuned in. It was even nominated for an Oscar in the Best Documentary Short category. It was so popular that Disney released two spin-offs: Man and the Moon and Mars and Beyond. The two other shorts are featured at Washington D.C.’s Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
10. Avatar
Like Star Wars, Avatar has its own theme park at Disney World, so you know it has to be good. This is an extremely long movie running at 2 hours and 42 minutes. James Cameron created the film that is a mixture of action, drama, sci-fi, and fantasy. Actors Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sigourney Weaver star in the hit movie. It became the fastest movie in history to gross $1 billion at the box office, which it did in just 19 days.
The movie takes place in the year 2154 where we find Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) who is a paraplegic former marine. As humans have depleted Earth’s natural resources, scientists at The Resources Development wanted to mine a specific valuable mineral on Pandora, which is a moon that orbits Polyphemus in the solar system. However, their atmosphere is poisonous to humans and inhabited by Na’vi, which are human-like creatures that are blue, roughly 10 feet tall, are all about nature, and follow their god named Eywa.
Scientists use a hybrid of Na’vi humans called “avatars” to visit their planet. They use genetically matched humans and Jake’s identical twin brother who was working on the project and died, took his place. After hesitance, Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) approved his replacement. A female Na’vi ends up rescuing him after he was attacked by a thanator and proceeds to initiate Jake into their world.
Meanwhile, the government promises Jake that they will restore the use of his human legs if they give him information regarding the Na’vi like their gathering place called Hometree which houses the most of the coveted mineral. Jake falls in love with Neytiri and nothing is ever the same.
What Disney+ movie are you choosing for movie night? Let us know in the comments!