Expecting or worse demanding the film not to get a subtitle to match the others is completely backwards. I just can’t wrap my head around the concept of people wanting to call it just “Star Wars”. That’s needlessly confusing and makes it stand out like a sore thumb.
As for the title itself I think it’s simple and elegant, and I like it.
It was called ‘Star Wars’ for 20 years and no-one got confused. Just saying’…
It was just called Star Wars for 4 years, actually. As soon as Empire started the whole subtitle thing, they changed the previous movie to make it match. And the “Star Wars” title may have worked in a time when it was the first Star Wars movie chronologically, but with the prequels I don’t think it makes sense. It just causes unnecessary confusion.
Yes, it was technically retitled in '81 but no-one bought into it. Even the video releases up until 1992 or thereabouts simply called it ‘Star Wars’. We bought ‘Star Wars’ action figures and ‘Star Wars’ lunchboxes and no-one said “hey, can’t wait to get ‘A New Hope’ on video” until the prequel era.
I know, but that’s because the prequels didn’t exist yet. When “Star Wars” stopped being the first Star Wars movie chronologically, I think a rebranding was necessary, and the title they needed was already right there.
I’m not necessarily disputing the current logic of the subtitle but to say it’s backwards is actually backwards. Like all of Lucas’ retcons he should’ve crafted his future movies to be in line with what was established rather than roll with his usual ‘original intent’ crap. Star Wars was one of the most groundbreaking movies in cinema history and a) we can’t buy it on blu ray and b) we don’t know what to call the damn thing.
Well, the original version is a different issue, and like everyone here I agree we should have it. But I don’t think it’s always necessary for creators to be constrained by what came before. Lucas intended the father reveal in ESB to set up a prequel trilogy, and he was a big fan of that serial episode number thing, so why not change the title to make room for another trilogy? Remember, he had no intention of making the Special Editions back then, it was just one change that didn’t even affect the content of the movie.