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SYFY WIRE Mark Hamill

Even Luke Skywalker is getting into title theories for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

By Don Kaye
Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker

Now that the title of Star Wars: Episode IX has been revealed, the theories about its meaning have already started — and the man whose character name is in the title itself is getting involved.

As soon as The Rise of Skywalker was unveiled as the official name of Episode IX earlier today (Apr. 12) at Star Wars Celebration in Chicago (along with much more), the Internet essentially exploded with speculation about what it signified. Who is the "Skywalker" the title refers to? Is it a retconned Rey? A redeemed Kylo Ren? A resurrected Luke? Or someone/something new entirely? Where are they rising from? What are they rising to?

We won't know those answers for a while, but Luke himself, a.k.a. Mark Hamill, dove into the theorizing with abandon on Twitter:

Hamill pretty much pegs it: we're in for eight months or so of all kinds of thinkpieces, rumors and ruminations about just what The Rise of Skywalker entails. At least he does like the title, and we have to admit — with all due respect — that it fits the series overall a wee bit better than the Jedi Master's own A Bunch More Stuff Happens (although technically that one is accurate as well).

Speaking of Luke, when we last saw him he was fatally depleted by his efforts to help the Resistance at the end of The Last Jedi, disappearing presumably into the realm of the Force Ghosts. But he is part of the credited cast of The Rise of Skywalker, and that is his voice we hear in the narration of the new film's first teaser, so it seems as if Luke will take one last bow as the Skywalker saga comes to a close.

Whether he rises or not is a different question entirely, but we can be reasonably sure that a bunch more stuff will indeed happen when Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker opens on Dec. 20, 2019.