Star Wars: Episode VIII is now Star Wars: The Last Jedi. While there’s plenty to speculate on that title and what it means to the story (and speculate we have and will continue to right here), it also has the added bonus of giving us a better idea of how the sequel trilogy of the Star Wars saga will play out.
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And that means it’s time, nearly three years out, to start thinking about the next next Star Wars Episodic film, Star Wars: Episode IX. Using some deduction, some suggestions, and some wishful thinking, we’ve come up with a few possible titles for that movie, based on what we know of the naming conventions so far. For example, the title is almost certainly going to include a particular individual in it, will most likely have an action, and should fit an overall theme for this trilogy while also paying homage to the others.
Click through for our possibilities, and you can check back here in a year or two to see if we were right.
Rise of the Jedi
When Supreme Leader Snoke speaks of Luke Skywalker inย Star Wars: The Force Awakens, he gave us the title toย Episode VIII – but did he also give usย Episode IX? It’s quite possible, when you look at the progression.
“The droid will soon be delivered to the Resistance, leading them to the last Jedi,” Snoke says. The Last Jedi – there we go. But his next line gives us this possible title. “If Skywalker returns, the new Jedi will rise.”
Rise of the Jedi – or Rise of the New Jedi, then, would make a great title for the third chapter. The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi (is found? Dies? Both?), and we witness the Rise of the Jedi in part three. Plus, that way, Snoke will have said in dialogue the title or at least general idea of the title of every movie in the first one.
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A Last Hope
A way to tie everything together and honor the cyclical nature ofย Star Wars storytelling, “A Last Hope” or “The Last Hope” would mimic the first film,ย A New Hope nicely. The title would likely fall to Rey; if Luke Skywalker the Last Jedi was to die, then she would be all that’s left, the last hope.
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The Only Hope
Our final suggestion is a twist on the former that also plays to a popular fan theory. If you ask aย Star Wars fan about Rey’s parentage, you’ll hear any number of ideas, but two are the most prevailing, that she’s either a Skywalker or somehow a Kenobi (a granddaughter of Obi-Wan, specifically). The latter is supported by Obi-Wan’s voice – and knowledge of her name – during her initial “Force vision.”
To that end, “The Only Hope” would make a great and logical title for theย Star Wars sequel trilogy finale. It would honor the first film,ย A New Hope. It would honor Kenobi, who Leia said was her “only hope,” and it would even honor Carrie Fisher, whose single word inย Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was that same word: hope.
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