Mark Hamill 'Reveals' Episode IX Title After Super Bowl Letdown

Feeling shortchanged by the trailer showings at the 2019 Super Bowl? Left hungering for a sneak peek at the next Star Wars movie, the one reportedly meant to end the Skywalker saga for good? Mark Hamill, mister Luke Skywalker himself, has a little something for you: the "title" of Star Wars: Episode IX. 

At Super Bowl LIII, film studios came forward in full force to roll out what felt like a never-ending reel of teasers for this year's hottest film and television releases. Hulu teased The Handmaid's Tale fans with an intense peek into the drama series' upcoming third season, CBS All Access revealed an extended cut promo for The Twilight Zone revival that features Jordan Peele as the show's host and narrator, Universal Pictures unleashed the trailer for the Fast and Furious franchise spin-off Hobbs and Shaw, Disney dropped a TV spot for Toy Story 4, Marvel Studios unveiled 30 seconds of footage from Captain Marvel and lifted the lid off the second look at Avengers: Endgame, and even Game of Thrones showed up to the party, crashing an advertisement for Bud Light. But, sadly, Lucasfilm didn't air anything for Episode IX. 

Fans quickly took to Twitter to express their disappointment at the distinct lack of Star Wars goodness at the Super Bowl. One wrote, "Two marvel spots but no episode 9 trailer? @Disney y'all are fake." Another admitted defeat: "Let's be clear here. We're all losers after the Super Bowl because we still have yet to see the Star Wars Episode 9 trailer." And yet another grumbled, "I watched that entire game cause I assumed the Star Wars Episode 9 trailer would've been dropped. I feel so cheated."

After hearing the dejected sighs of Star Wars loyals all across social media, Hamill took to his own Twitter to turn their frowns upside down. The actor fake-revealed the title for Episode IX, joking that it was actually made public years ago and sharing a screenshot of "proof" of the announcement. 

"Disappointed there was no #StarWars trailer shown during the #SuperBowl? Agonizing over how long you'll have to wait until they drop the title? RELAX nerds! #Futurama predicted it years ago & we all know: Cartoons. Never. Lie. EXCLUSIVE BREAKING 'NEWS': #EpIXYodasBarMitzvah," Hamill wrote, also posting two pictures of Yoda wearing a yarmulke and a signed photo of Obi-Wan Kenobi with the words "My Rabbi" scrawled in the corner.

For those confused by Hamill's tweet, the actor is referring to an episode from the second season of the Matt Groening-created animated sitcom series Futurama. Entitled "The Lesser of Two Evils," the episode features pizza delivery boy-turned-cargo delivery boy Fry (Billy West), one-eyed mutant Leela (Katey Sagal), and foul-mouthed robot Bender (John DiMaggio) taking a trip to the Past-O-Rama theme park, which is built to resemble the 20th century. (Futurama takes place in the 30th century.) During their theme park visit, the trio walk past a theater that's screening Star Wars 9. The theater marquee reveals the film's title as Star Wars 9: Yoda's Bar Mitzvah.

Another of Matt Groening's television series, The Simpsons, has freakishly predicted the future on a number of occasions — foreseeing everything from Donald Trump becoming the president of the United States to people unknowingly ingesting the same chemical compound that makes gym mats soft and squishy to Lady Gaga's halftime performance at the 2017 Super Bowl — so Hamill's silly social media post was actually rooted in some truth. Still, Disney and Lucasfilm probably didn't settle on Yoda's Bar Mitzvah as the subtitle of what's arguably the most highly anticipated movie of 2019, as much as anyone – Futurama fans or those who just love a good laugh — may be hoping. 

We can't say we're surprised that Super Bowl LIII went without any Star Wars: Episode IX footage, largely because The Hollywood Reporter relayed a few days ahead of the big game that viewers at home shouldn't expect to see any kind of promo for the film, despite Disney (which owns Lucasfilm where the Star Wars series is housed) being the "biggest presence" in terms of Super Bowl commercials. That didn't stop others from holding out hope that even three seconds of Episode IX footage would find its way into the four-hour Super Bowl window, but alas, those wishes were washed away along with the Los Angeles Rams' dreams of defeating the New England Patriots, becoming the National Football League champion for the 2018 season, and taking home the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

As for what Episode IX might genuinely be titled, there are a few options. An alleged title card surfaced on Reddit back in December of 2018, when a user claimed that they were sent a card detailing that the film is called Star Wars: Son of Darkness and that an official confirmation was to follow shortly after. The leaked information has since been proven fake, but it still has fans talking, especially about how what we've already seen of the sequel trilogy will influence the title of Episode IX. "Son of darkness" is a clear nod of Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), the son of Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford), who was training under his uncle Luke but ultimately switched to the dark side of the Force and wound up killing his father near the end of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

More recently, Reddit user wmwortman speculated that Episode IX's title might be hidden in dialogue featured in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, specifically the exchange in which Kylo tells Luke, "I'm sure you are! The Resistance is dead! The war is over! And when I kill you, I will have killed the last Jedi!" and Luke answers, "Amazing. Every word of what you just said was wrong. The Rebellion is reborn today. The war is just beginning. And I will not be the last Jedi." From there comes the idea that Episode IX could be called Star Wars: Rebellion Reborn or Star Wars: The New Rebellion. 

There's some precedence for this method of naming, as Disney and Lucasfilm took The Last Jedi's title from the opening crawl in The Force Awakens, which read in part, "Luke Skywalker has vanished. In his absence, the sinister FIRST ORDER has risen from the ashes of the Empire and will not rest until Skywalker, the last Jedi, has been destroyed."

The Hollywood Reporter previously theorized that Episode IX might be titled A Spark of Hope, inspired by The Last Jedi's crawl that read "Master Luke Skywalker will return and restore a spark of hope to the fight"; The Rising Tyranny, again from the crawl of The Last Jedi, namely the line, "Only General Leia Organa's band of Resistance fighters stand against the rising tyranny"; The Knights of Ren, after Supreme Leader Snoke's line from The Force Awakens, "Even the Knights of Ren have never faced such a test"; or The Ashes of the Empire, from the words "the sinister First Order has risen from the ashes of the Empire" seen in The Force Awakens' crawl. 

Elsewhere, ScreenRant predicted that Episode IX will be called Star Wars: The New Order Rises, while Elite Daily formulated three Star Wars title style options – "Article-Adjective-Noun" like A New Hope and The Last Jedi, "Article-Noun-Action Verb" like The Force Awakens and The Empire Strikes Back, and "Action Verb (of the) Noun" like Attack of the Clones, Return of the Jedi, and Revenge of the Sith" — to theorize that Episode IX could be called Fate of the First Order, The Resistance's Last Stand, Knight of the Republic, or The Spirit of the Galaxy. 

Since Episode IX is still months away from its theatrical release on December 20, we still have quite a while to wait to find out what the film is really called. Popular belief is that Disney and Lucasfilm will announce the title — and release the first trailer — during Star Wars Celebration in April. Here's to hoping.