Star Wars: What Every Episode Title Before The Last Jedi Means

What’s in a name? Well quite a bit, as it turns out, especially in the world of Star Wars. Now that we know Episode VIII is really Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the speculation engines are in full gear as we desperately try to pull any clue we can out of everything we know about the film, every word any of its stars or crew say about it, and usually find out, well, basically nothing.

But that’s okay – it’s still fun, just as it is to look back. When we look at the history of the Star Wars episodic movies, the titles have told us quite a bit about the contents of the movie, and have often meant more than one thing or applied to more than one character. While some of these are certainly subject to personal opinion and debate, we’ll do our best to break them down here. Let’s look at a little history, and see if it gives us any clues at the future, shall we?

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The Phantom Menace

Episode I’s title looks straight forward at first, but has other layers – much like The Last Jedi would later. Here, The Phantom Menace can refer to several things. There’s the obvious, which is the Sith in general, hiding in plain sight and manipulating events in the galaxy. There’s Darth Maul, who comes in and out of view almost like a wraith, until his final confrontation with the Jedi. There’s Darth Sidious, who is coniving and calculating. Then there’s even little Anakin Skywalker, who they all think is the chosen one, but will turn out to be a terrible threat to the Republic, the Jedi, and the Galaxy at large for decades to come.

Attack of the Clones

Like the other “middle chapter” we’ll get to in a moment, Attack of the Clones was pretty darn literal. The Clone army has been assembled, and they attack on behalf of the Republic for the first time. It’s the start of the Clone Wars, and… that’s about it.

Revenge of the Sith

This is a straight-forward one, but it’s also interesting to unwrap. Just what are the Sith getting revenge for, anyway? In canon, we don’t know much. We know that Darth Bane existed and so does the Rule of Two, that there can only be one Master and one Apprentice in the Sith Order, and we know that the Sith have been gone or at least in hiding for generations. The Revenge is against the Jedi order, sure, for some slight, but it’s also against the entire galaxy for seemingly forgetting they even existed.

A New Hope

This one is mostly, of course, about Luke Skywalker. He’s a new hope for the Rebel Alliance, for the galaxy, and even for the Force, so he at least embodies that new hope in multiple ways. Of course, Leia could also be said to be a New Hope – despite the way she’s been working for the Rebels for years, here she really comes into her own and takes charge. The Force itself is also a new hope, as at this point the Rebel Alliance doesn’t have any other Force wielders on their side (sorry Kanan and Ezra, that doesn’t mean good news for you).

The Empire Strikes Back

One of the much more literal and straightforward titles in the saga, The Empire Strikes Back tells it like it is. After the destruction of the Death Star in the last film, the Empire has been building up for three years, getting ready to um… strike back. And in this movie, they do, destroying the Rebel base on Hoth, and seeing a series of other victories against the Rebels.

Return of the Jedi

The title of Episode VI is one of the more ambiguous ones, as Return of the Jedi can refer to more than one cahracter, for sure. One, we have Luke Skywalker completing his training, and becoming a Jedi Knight – a return of the Jedi. There’s also Anakin Skywalker returning, no longer a Sith, now a Jedi once more. There’s even the very concept of the Jedi, who have at this point been relegated mostly to myth and legend, being accepted back into the larger Star Wars galaxy.

The Force Awakens

The most recent Skywalker Saga episode was of course The Force Awakens, and that title is a fairly obvious one. It refers first and foremost to Rey, it seems. When Supreme Leader Snoke says “There has been an awakening, have you felt it?” He’s speaking of the fact that she’s tapped into the Force actively for the first time (while flying the Millennium Falcon).

However, there’s also the bigger awakening of the battle between the light and dark sides of the Force – that’s something that’s happening both internally, inside Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, and externally as the First Order really moves earnestly against the New Republic and the Resistance.

Lastly, Luke Skywalker is found, and that’s another Force awakening of its own – he’s been in exile and off the board, but now he’s back, giving him a metaphorical awakening.

The Last Jedi

So what does that tell us about The Last Jedi? Well, it’s probably ambiguous on purpose, and it probably does mean more than one thing. All the guesses people are making could be right – literally, all of them, all at once. It could be Luke, it could be Rey, it could be Ben, it could be Leia, it could be some or all of them. One thing’s for sure: it’ll keep people talking, and it should be a lot of fun.