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Mark Hamill starts the Star Wars: Episode IX countdown

Fans, the final film in the original Star Wars series is just 12 parsecs away. Wait, does that even make sense?

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
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Gael Cooper
2 min read

Warning: Possible spoilers for Star Wars : The Last Jedi ahead, if you still haven't seen it.

It's been more than six months since Star Wars: The Last Jedi came out, and other blockbuster films (Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War) have shoved the space series out of the headlines.

But actor Mark Hamill , who plays Luke Skywalker, knows it's only a matter of time before we all head back to a galaxy far, far away. On Thursday, Hamill posted a countdown tweet announcing that it's only 532 days until the still-unnamed Star Wars: Episode IX opens. And to be precise, at the time he posted it, 532 days, 11 hours, 56 minutes, and 58 seconds. 

But as Hamill tweeted, "Who's counting?" He also shared a reassuring hashtag for concerned fans, saying "#9WillBeFineAllInGoodTime." 

Hamill's screenshot is from the website How Many Days Until Star Wars.com, if you'd like to occasionally check this vital fact on your own. The tweet earned more than 10,000 likes in just over an hour.

Naturally, some fans enthusiastically jumped on the countdown bandwagon. One shared a Last Jedi image of Luke gulping down that film's memorable beverage, tweeting, "I am with the tasty milk at my side."

But others aren't that excited, with some still holding a grudge against The Last Jedi. Wrote one fan, "I'm counting ... on a much better film and something amazing from your character to right the ship."

Others defended that film -- though some offered up only a lukewarm defense. "Yeah I wouldn't say it's the best but it was a good movie, and kids love it," wrote one Twitter user.

Good or bad, disappointing or uplifting, Star Wars: Episode IX opens globally on Dec. 20, 2019.