I have and will always call the film’s by their names with no episode or SW prefix. Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Force Awakens, Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker. Oh and of course the Tragedies.
Exactly this. I’m not going to say, “Star Wars Episode V, The Empire Strikes Back,” and I’m not going to call Empire “Star Wars.” I say “Star Wars” when I’m referring to the first movie, and I don’t think that confuses anybody.
Depends on the version I’m referring to.
“Star Wars” for 77 version. “New Hope” or “ANH” for SE.
I’m not really that much of a movie purist. I really should’ve thought my name out a bit more.
I call it “Star Wars, you know, the 1st one.”
I pretty much always just call it Star Wars. I don’t consider “Star Wars” to be an actual part of the titles of Empire and Jedi, that they’re just called “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” because they were marketed as such. Also, like in Leonard Maltin’s movie guide you’ll find Empire in the E section for Empire Strikes Back, not in the S’s with Star Wars as “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” because that’s not what it’s called. Same with Jedi, in its case in the R section of course.
The only time I’m okay with “A New Hope” being used is if you call it “Star Wars: A New Hope,” but even then Empire and Jedi can’t have “Star Wars” attached to their titles(or any of the other later movies for that matter) because that takes away from SW as being something special and degrades it to just another movie in the franchise.
And there’s nothing wrong with the first movie being the title of the series. Take Planet of the Apes for instance. The original 1968 movie is called Planet of the Apes, then each of the sequels is “Something” (from/of/for) the Planet of the Apes.
You’ll laugh! You’ll cry! You’ll kiss three bucks goodbye!
Space Balls: The Lunch Box
Space Balls: The Toilet Paper
Space Balls: The Flame Thrower
My personal favorite
My copy of the Faces tape box didn’t say A New Hope, but my friend’s did. We all knew Episode IV was added later and didn’t give much thought to the wimpy sounding subtitle, but I had seen the 15th Anniversary poster so I knew there was some official push to making A New Hope the de facto title.
JFS
I prefer to call it SW or SW '77. ANH if I’m referring to any of the SEs, maybe.
“The Anarchists are right in everything; in the negation of the existing order and in the assertion that, without Authority there could not be worse violence than that of Authority under existing conditions. They are mistaken only in thinking that anarchy can be instituted by a violent revolution… There can be only one permanent revolution — a moral one: the regeneration of the inner man. How is this revolution to take place? Nobody knows how it will take place in humanity, but every man feels it clearly in himself. And yet in our world everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody thinks of changing himself.”
― Leo Tolstoy
I usually call it either “Star Wars” or “the original Star Wars film.” I never liked the New Hope title and I stopped referring to the movies by episode numbers years ago. Numbers make for boring movie titles.
All his life has he looked away… to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph!
A New Hope (or Episode 4) simply because, well, every other movie in the trilogy has a subtitle. “The Empire Strikes Back”, “Return Of The Jedi”… It feels weird calling it “Star Wars”.
I’ve always said “A New Hope” in the past, but lately I’ve been using the terms “Star Wars '77” or “the original film.”
Move along, move along.
For both the original trilogy and the sequel trilogy I use the title (well, except the first, which I just call “Star Wars”) while the prequel trilogy I use “Episode _”. I might also prefix “Star Wars” to the sequels if I’m bringing it up out of context.
And that’s not really a conscious decision on my part, it’s more that, frankly, that’s what they’re called. Well, technically the prequels had the whole “Star Wars: Episode _ - The Rest of the Name,” but you look at the logos with EPISODE BLANK in huge text and the rest all tiny, it’s clear what the “main” title is, while the rest is relegated to subtitles (and I do recall most people referring to them as “Episode _” or sometimes “Star Wars Episode _” in conversation, with the exception of certain Star Wars fans when talking to each other).
I’m a little skeptical of the idea that they ever REALLY changed the names of any of these movies. Like, if we were to go look them up in national film registries or whatever, they’d all have their original titles and I doubt the stakeholders would actually want to change them. I think they have a “marketing title” that is fluid with the times (note in the years the sequel trilogy was in its various theater runs the prior films all retroactively became “Star Wars: The Name of the Movie” to match, eliminating the “Episode _”; nowadays it seems a bit more loosey-goosey), but the release title is sort of the “primary key” of sorts.
I’m probably not describing anything us long-term fans don’t already know, but I’m pretty sure these are still the ULTRA OFFICIAL IF YOU WANNA GET REALLY TECHNICAL ABOUT IT titles of the movies:
Star Wars
The Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
There is another…
Lol
I’m just a simple man trying to make my way in the universe.
Star Wars has 3 eras: The eras are 1977-1983(pre Expanded Universe), (1983-2014) expanded universe, or (2014- now) Disney-bought version. Each are valid.
Important voice tool:
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1472151/action/topic#1472151
Also:
Star Wars: Return of a Jedi
Star Wars: Attack of a Clone
I call it “Star Wars”, since that is what the film was called when it was first released theatrically. But for some people who don’t know what I am talking about, that is when I refer to it as “A New Hope”.
I still almost always call it Star Wars out of habit. I don’t recall anyone really calling it A New Hope until the prequels were released. But if I’m speaking to my nephews who became fans through the prequels, I will call it A New Hope.
“Star Wars” for 1977 version.
“A New Hope” or the “Maclunkey” version for the Special Editions.