Disney and Star Wars reveal the title for Episode VIII

You no longer have to double-check how many capital Is you place when talking about the Star Wars movie hitting theaters in December, 2017. Star Wars: Episode VIII now has an official title, Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The title was announced on StarWars.com Monday morning

This was not, incidentally, one of the many "leaked" titles for the film, of which at least 4 had emerged throughout 2016. 

The film is said to take up immediately after the final shot of J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens, when Daisy Ridley’s Rey was handing Luke Skywalker his old lightsaber. Skywalker, it would seem, is the last Jedi of the title, and while it’s not clear what the plot of the film is in any sense, the title alone indicates the film be largely centered around Mark Hamill’s character.

According to the backstory revealed in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Luke had spent the years since the Rebels defeated the Empire trying to establish a new Jedi order. One of his students was the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, who turned to the Dark Side of the Force, slaughtered the rest of the students, and changed his name to Kylo Ren. Skywalker went into hiding after the murders, leading to the search for him that made up most of Awakens.

If the new film’s name sounds familiar to some fans, that’s because it has already been part of the Star Wars universe. In 2013 authors Michael Reaves and Maya Kathryn Bohnhoff wrote a novel called The Last Jedi, which followed a lone Jedi that had gone underground after the events of Revenge of the Sith. Ironically, The Last Jedi was that book’s second choice for a title at the time, as the name the authors had originally preferred was already part of series canon.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi, from writer/director Rian Johnson, is in post-production now for a December 15, 2017 release. The film follows-up and continues the story of the next generation of the saga as Rey, Poe, Finn, and Kylo Ren find their place in the galaxy and follow the legacy of Luke Skywalker, Leia, and Han Solo. Daisy Ridley returns to star as Rey, with other returning stars John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Peter Mayhew, Andy Serkis, Anthony Daniels, Lupita Nyong'o Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher as General Leia Organa. Benicio Del Toro and Laura Dern join the cast in as-yet-unrevealed roles.