Over the past few weeks, Disney and Lucasfilm have seemingly dropped the episode numbers from the titles of their Star Wars movies. While both Star Wars Episode VII and Episode VIII were referred to by those names before receiving official monikers (Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, respectively), the numbers have now vanished from all official marketing and promotional materials.
Even more interesting, however, is that ComicBook.com has spotted that the prequels and original trilogy have also dropped the numbers, at least when being referred to in press releases for everything from Star Wars Rebels to Star Wars Celebration. It’s a small change, sure, but one which could have a significant impact on the franchise moving forward.
If nothing else, removing the numbers gives the movies a real feeling of being one big saga rather than grouping them in three different sets. Going down this route will also make future outings a lot easier, as it frees Lucasfilm up from having to place them in a certain order. After all, should they decide to launch a new trilogy set before the prequels once Star Wars Episode IX is released in 2019, they won’t have to be numbered -1, -2, and -3.
Throw in all the spinoffs that the studio is working on and it’s pretty obvious that dropping the “Episode -” part of future Star Wars movie titles could really be the best possible move for the beloved series. That’s just our opinion, though. What do you think? Should the numbers be removed? Let us know in the usual place!
