If Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is the king of social media, then Mark Hamill is unquestionably the court jester. The Luke Skywalker actor posted a cryptic tweet a couple of weeks ago that simply read "THE" with "to be continued..." in parentheses. Eager fans immediately hoped that this was a prelude to the revelation of the title for J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: Episode IX. More tweets followed, and it became pretty clear that this was not the title for Episode IX, but rather Mark Hamill using his position and the weight of his words to have a little fun. The actor completed his cryptic chain of tweets today, his birthday, with the punchline. Take a look:
So altogether, the tweets add up to "The purpose of annoying everyone with inane tweets is distracting from my birthday." Indeed, today is the actor's 67th birthday, and the whole thing was just a fun bit of trolling in recognition of that. Mark Hamill even included some pictures of himself when he was younger for people to see. That's not quite the secret some fans may have thought they were about to uncover, but it's entertaining nonetheless.
Fans are conditioned to hang on to every word the actor says, lest he slip up and say something controversial or revealing. Mark Hamill knows this power and Star Wars fans know how much he likes to mess with them, so it's a fun kind of relationship. Pretty much after "annoying" and maybe even after "purpose," it became clear this wasn't going to be an Episode IX title, but the trolling was still fun, especially that first post that just read "The" teasing a potential title incoming.
Realistically, when the reveal for the title of Star Wars: Episode IX comes, it probably won't be from Mark Hamill's Twitter account. That's just not the way Disney does things, and Mark Hamill being Mark Hamill, a Joker onscreen and off, we probably wouldn't even believe the real title if he revealed it to us. It's best to look at what Mark Hamill says with a skeptical eye and a desire to laugh. As far as when we'll be getting the title for the final film in the Skywalker Saga, it's tough to say.
The title of Star Wars: The Force Awakens was revealed in early November 2014, over a year before the film's release and less than a month before the first teaser. For Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the title reveal came in January of 2017, followed by a teaser in April and the film itself in December. So there is no definite pattern with which we can make an educated guess. We may get a title and a teaser in a couple months, or it might not come until 2019. I could see Disney wanting to get the hype started early or keep this thing super secret for as long as possible. If nothing else, Mark Hamill was probably onto something with his first cryptic tweet, there's a solid chance that Episode IX's title starts with 'The.'
Star Wars: Episode IX releases in theaters on December 20, 2019. For all the news from a galaxy far, far away and Mark Hamill's latest trolling, stay tuned to CinemaBlend.
