Star Wars 9 Title: What Does 'The Rise Of Skywalker' Really Mean?

8. It's A Reaction To The Last Jedi's Backlash

Though The Last Jedi was highly acclaimed by critics and turned in mighty box office results, it went down decidedly less swimmingly with the hardcore crowd.

Many fans felt that writer-director Rian Johnson subverted expectations purely for the sake of it, offing Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and deliberately skirting clear of fan service on multiple occasions.

But if The Last Jedi was thematically concerned with moving on from the past - through Yoda's (Frank Oz) mantra of learning from failure rather than Kylo Ren's (Adam Driver) belief to forget it completely - Episode IX being titled The Rise of Skywalker feels like an incredibly calculated rebuke.

It tells fans that the past will still be a major fixture in this new movie, and though it will surely fully establish Rey (Daisy Ridley) as the series' ultimate hero, it will also put firm paid to Luke's legacy up to this point.

At even the most subtle, subconscious level, the name "Skywalker" gives fans that nostalgia-soaked dopamine twinge, and assures them that this climatic instalment will probably be a far more fan service-heavy entry than The Last Jedi.

Whether that's a good thing or not for the movie creatively, meanwhile, is another matter altogether.