Episode VIII will be called Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Warning, this post contains spoilers about the previous Star Wars film, Episode VII.

Since Disney bought the Star Wars franchise, we’ve been treated to two rather excellent films. 2015’s Star Wars: Episode VII—The Force Awakens was a return to form. Last year’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story filled in some plot points and explored the universe in a darker and more mature way.

Thanks to Disney’s metronomic production schedule, the next installment of Star Wars will hit the screens in December, and we now have a title: Episode VIII will be Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

The film is being directed by Rian Johnson, whose previous work includes Looper, a time-travel number starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis. Johnson also wrote the screenplay for Episode VIII, as he did for his previous films.

As we all know, Episode VII ended on a almost-literal cliffhanger (really, those stairs up the side of that island?).

Rey has found Luke Skywalker, silently offering his old lightsaber in lieu of a greeting. Does the last Jedi in the title refer to one? Many? We’re not going to get long odds hypothesizing that the film will involve Luke teaching Rey, whose ability with the force was powerful enough to see off Kylo Ren.

Then again, could it refer to the previous crop of Jedi that were trained post-Episode VI? There was that flashback of Kylo Ren cutting down his fellow trainees, the event that presumably caused the hero of the Battles of Yavin IV and Endor to retreat into hiding in the first place. Here’s looking forward to December 15th.

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