A Star Wars genogram of the Skywalker family

The chart follows the nine films of the Skywalker saga

The scope of this Star Wars genogram is the Skywalker saga, Episodes I to IX, released between 1977 and 2019. Novels, comics, the animated series and the older Legends books are left out, because they add relatives that the films never show. No birth years are drawn, since the films give none in calendar years.

The chart has four generations. Shmi Skywalker, her husband Cliegg Lars and Palpatine are at the top. Anakin, Padmé, the Lars couple, the Organas and Rey’s parents form the second row, Luke, Leia and Han the third, and Ben Solo the fourth. Rey stands apart at the right, joined to the family by no line of blood.

Blood, partnership and raising are drawn differently

A genogram does not treat every family tie as the same kind of line, and the Skywalkers show why. The table sorts the ties that matter and names the film that establishes each one.

The twins are raised apart by two different families

Luke and Leia are twins, born to Padmé and Anakin. The chart draws them as two separate children rather than with the twin mark, so that the two lines of raising stay readable. Luke hangs on a dotted foster line from Owen and Beru Lars, who raise him on Tatooine as their nephew. Leia hangs on the dotted adoption line from Bail and Breha Organa, and the official databank says that Bail adopted her. The solid lines to Anakin and Padmé mark them as the birth parents.

The difference between the two dotted lines matters. The databank says that Bail adopted Leia, while it describes Owen and Beru as raising Luke, their nephew, from birth. The genogram symbols give an adoption and a child raised by relatives a line each, and the chart uses the adoption line only where an adoption is stated.

Rey takes the Skywalker name without a blood tie

Episode IX reveals that Rey is Palpatine’s granddaughter, hidden on Jakku by her parents, who are then killed. At the end of the film she gives her name as Rey Skywalker. A genogram records kinship, not a chosen name, so Rey hangs from her own parents and Palpatine, and the Skywalker name is a note on her symbol. The chart labels her parents by role.

Rey is also Luke and Leia’s apprentice, as Wikipedia’s cast list for Episode IX describes her. That is a teaching relationship. It belongs in a note or on an ecomap rather than on the lines of a family chart.

What this Star Wars genogram leaves out and why

Owen’s mother, Cliegg’s earlier partner, never appears in the films, so Owen hangs from Cliegg alone with no second line. Han Solo’s parents are not shown in the saga either, and the Skywalker family article notes that the surname of Han’s father is unknown. Leaving those places empty is more honest than filling them with guesses. The films never show Han and Leia’s wedding either, so their line records a couple with a son who later separated, as Episode VII says.

Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and Qui-Gon Jinn shape the family’s story as teachers and protectors, but none of them is kin. A genogram keeps such people off the family lines. Where they matter to a question, a note or an ecomap records them beside the chart. The chart also draws no emotional lines. The films give plenty of conflict, but the purpose here is to show who is related to whom and how.

Rebuild this Star Wars genogram from a blank sheet

To practise, rebuild the chart in the editor rather than copying the picture. Choose the scope first and write it in the caption, as this chart does with the nine films.

The Yellowstone genogram shows another way to set the scope when a family story spans several series.