A new rumor online suggests that the Star Wars: Episode IX title goes full circle with the Skywalker saga, connecting to George Lucas’ 1977 masterpiece and paying tribute to the late Carrie Fisher.
According to what’s being claimed only as a marketing leak, the title for Episode IX will be Star Wars: The Only Hope. If this rumor turns out to be true, it’d be an obvious nod to Lucas’ adapted title for the first film, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, as well as Princess Leia’s (Fisher) iconic line from the same movie: “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.”
With that connection, the title would also be a touching and fitting tribute to Fisher, who passed away in December of 2016, about a year before Star Wars: The Last Jedi was released.
It’s already confirmed that director J.J. Abrams, who’s returning to the series after his work on the first part of its latest trilogy, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, will be using archival footage from the 2015 film to bring Leia back to the screen. It seems like Abrams has done right by Fisher, too, as Mark Hamill has already said her role in the film would “please her,” and actor Oscar Isaac stated last November that the movie deals with her absence “in a really beautiful way.”
With all this said, we still don’t have many concrete details on the latest Star Wars outing. Episode IX will be featured at Star Wars Celebration next month though, and maybe there we’ll get an official title (and perhaps a first trailer?!). Whatever ends up happening, the pieces will be coming together fairly soon, given that Star Wars: Episode IX has a release date of December 20th, 2019. As always, watch this space for more.
