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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a galactically stupid title

Commentary: "A New Order" was just sitting there waiting to be used.

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.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
2 min read

No, it's not an adult-film parody title, or a coffee table book about George Lucas' movie ranch. Episode 9, the next Star Wars movie, is really called Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Watch this: Star Wars Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker trailer tees up saga's culmination

We finally got the title Friday morning at Star Wars Celebration Chicago, and yes, these things take time to get used to. But I can't be the only Star Wars watcher who thinks it's about as appealing as the Sarlacc.

I've said it before: I was rooting for Star Wars: A New Order. That worked on every level. Short, appealing, direct and a nice throwback to the 1977 original Star Wars film, which I saw in theaters when it was just called Star Wars but was later dubbed A New Hope.

Also, doesn't the new title just scream spoiler? In one of two ways, apparently. With Rey all over the trailer and the words THE RISE OF SKYWALKER emblazoned on the screen, are we just all admitting now that we know she's obviously a Skywalker relation, whether Luke's kid or not? Let's hope that's just too obvious. So on the other hand, is Kylo Ren, whose mother Leia was a Skywalker, the family member on the rise?

Some fans liked it, with writer Kris Tapley putting it solidly in the middle of a title ranking, above the 1977 original and below The Phantom Menace.

Tapley also has thoughts about the title's meaning, writing, "I think there's zero chance that title refers to Rey."

Not everyone was on board with the title.

"Which Star Wars isn't the rise of Skywalker .... he rose 10x already," noted one Twitter user.

Some fans had theories about what was rising, and who, and why.

"Skywalker is the new Jedi Order. Rey starts it, maybe with Kylo," wrote one Twitter user.

Some fans were more interested in a familiar laugh from the new teaser trailer. Hello, Emperor Palpatine, welcome back. Maybe the title should've been, "The Rise/Return/Revenge/Whatever of Palpatine."

Star Wars star Mark Hamill, who played O.G. Skywalker Luke, weighed in about the new title Friday, nothing that it wasn't his suggestion: Episode IX: A Bunch More Stuff Happens. 

And the actor jumped right in with guesses as to which member of his fictional family the title is referring to.

"Is that Skywalker KYLO? LEIA? ANAKIN? LUKE?" he wrote. "A previously unknown SKYWALKER? Is REY a Skywalker?"

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (really!) opens Dec. 19 in the UK and Australia, and Dec. 20 in the US.

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Originally published April 12.