First, I’d say use 4K77 and 4K83 over despecialized. Not that Harmy’s work isn’t amazing and a crucial step in fan preservation history. But if you’re gonna show them the original cuts, why not go with truly original cuts where possible? Now for ESB I’d argue that the latest Despecialized is the best thing currently available.

As for order, just this year I introduced my kids (boys age 3 and 5) to Star Wars. Of course they both loved it. Some stuff certainly went over my 3 year olds head but he was still very into it and got the key info. My five year old was really into it and absolutely understood everything that he was seeing. He still will randomly say things that make me go “wow, I had no idea you picked up on that detail!”

I showed them Star Wars (via 4K77) first. Then we went to Disney world and naturally did a bunch of Star Wars stuff (the galaxys edge thing wasn’t quite open yet).

Then several months later they asked to watch Star Wars again so we watched 4K77 again. At that point I decided they could handle the rest of the OT so we watched ESB and ROTJ via ESB DeEd 2.0 and 4K83. My five year old was shocked at Vader’s ESB revelation. When asked about it during the credits he blurted out, “he’s lying!!! Obi-wan said he killed Luke’s dad!!”. It was pretty awesome! We’ve since watched ESB one more time and I suspect we’ll watch the whole OT again soon since they’ve elected to go as Darth Vader and a Stormtrooper for Halloween.

I’m sure they’ll see the PT eventually but I’ve no plans or interest in showing it to them. Plus parts of ROTS are inappropriate for their ages. I do intend to show them the Disney films in the future, but again, they’re not really age appropriate yet. As it stands it’s pretty nice letting the OT stand alone for a time. It deserves some breathing room and time for their little brains to really absorb it and ponder it. It’s also good to see the OT cementing itself as the foundation of their Star Wars experience, just like it was for me.