The Star Wars Movie Titles, Ranked

The best movie titles are catchy and unique, they spark curiosity and give a sense of wonder. So since it’s May the 4th, let’s have some fun and rank the Star Wars movie titles. Yes, only the titles… we don’t need to bother with ranking the movies themselves since there is nothing to discuss there and we all agree that The Last Jedi is top-tier. Let’s get into it:

Number 1 has to be the OG, and please note I’m only ranking Star Wars as the title here, because A New Hope is a boring and joyless ‘do nothing’ retcon of a title for what is the intro to a space opera…

Just think back to the first time you heard the words ‘Star’ and ‘Wars’ combined together: what could this mean? A plural on war? We are dealing with multiple wars in these stars?! It sends your mind racing about a fight for the whole galaxy and already your thinking about an epic scope and scale, it’s catchy and straight to the point... Star Wars is so good as a title it became the name for the entire saga, easy to sell as a series of movies, easy to slap on all the merch. and toys.

‘Strikes Back’ does so much heavy lifting in making this title pop. Just say it out loud: THEE EM-PYRE STRYKS BAK. That combination of vowels and consonants is perfect: it has oomph, it rolls off the tongue, and it’s fun to say.

Beyond just sounding phonetically strong, I love the title itself in the context of the film, it celebrates the bad guys and puts the spotlight on them… the empire striking back ties into film’s darker note.

‘Phantom’ is one of those words in our lexicon that’s rarely used but always fun, it’s strange and fancy. I remember not being sure of its meaning when Episode I came out and remember looking it up:

Phan-tom: Something that appears to exist but has no physical reality, such as a ghost, illusion, or mental image

There is a paradoxical angle that gives it a cool mystique feel… I’m also a huge fan of the ‘f’ sound being spelled with a ‘ph’: elephant, phenomenal, triumph, phantom, turning an ‘f’ into a ‘ph’ is like putting on a sports jacket, it instantly makes you more elegant.

Now you pair ‘phantom’ with ‘menace’, another word you don’t hear everyday and you have a title with real aura. Something feels threatening without telling you why. And then you watch the movie and the meaning multiplies: is the phantom menace Palpatine hiding as Sidious, pulling strings we can feel but not see? Is it Anakin, the chosen one who will eventually fall to the dark side? Is it the Jedi, blind to the threat gathering around them?

Lucas originally went with The Beginning as the title for Episode I. It’s very biblical but it instantly makes the Star Wars universe smaller, this is just the beginning of Anakin’s story, but it’s not the beginning of Star Wars itself.

Yes, there’s the infamous clip of Ewan McGregor learning the title for Episode II and barely concealing his horror. I can see why people think it’s cheesy but that’s exactly why I like it, it’s pulpy in a Flash Gordon-esque way, and that’s exactly what these movies are.

The title is fun to pronounce but it’s ‘Clones’ that’s the cherry on top here… we figured that clones were coming at some point in the prequels based off Kenobi’s throwaway line about the Clone Wars back in the first Star Wars, but Phantom Menace ended with zero hints about anything clone-related. So Attack of the Clones announces itself immediately: get ready y’all, the clones are coming. Who are the clones? What are they attacking? We had no clue but it piqued our curiosity. And sure, the actual attack of the clones does not happen until the very end, but it’s a better title than Episode II: A Naboo Love Story or Detective Kenobi.

This one sounds a bit simple at first but the finality of ‘Last’ grows on you: who is the last Jedi? Is it Luke? Rey? Kylo? Maybe Snoke or Yoda? Or is it someone we haven’t met yet? It’s an ambiguous title that makes your mind wonder. Luke starts off as the last Jedi, until he passes the torch to Rey and inspires the entire galaxy, tying into the film’s last scene with broom boy who represents the Jedi ways being passed down from one generation to another. It’s a title that carries the thesis of the film beautifully… It’s like poetry, it rhymes. An acceptable alternate title: The Last Great Star Wars.

Genuinely fun combo of words… what the hell is a ‘Rogue One’? We weren’t sure but it sounded cool and we figured it was tied to the Rogue Squadron. The meaning within the movie itself is a bit of a throwaway and I wish Disney stuck with the Star Wars Anthology subtitle, it sounds epic compared to A Star Wars Story which makes these spin-offs sound like fairytales (…wait a minute).

‘Revenge’ and ‘Sith’ are both strong, but at this point we already had Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi so it’s a bit of a retread. I see the symmetry but it feels a bit safe and derivative for what was the series’ grand finale at the time. Give me something with more sparks, this title doesn’t tell me anything I didn’t expect.

It’s nice to see ‘Jedi’ in an actual movie title but ‘Return’ is just too passive and soft. The title sounds exactly like what it is: a last-minute replacement for the bad-ass original title of Revenge of the Jedi.

Lucas was right, a Jedi shouldn’t seek revenge, but he should have gone back to the drawing board instead of just swapping ‘Return’ for ‘Revenge’. Again this was the series finale, give me something with more fire and passion behind it.

Sigh. I actually really like this one phonetically, ‘Skywalker’ is one of the all-time great fictional names and combining it with ‘The Rise of’ sounds good to the ear. It also sparked a real conversation in the lead-up to the film, even though I gotta take off points here because those conversations proved to be absolutely meaningless once the film came out and spat in everyone’s face.

Also, just two movies prior you told me that the force awakened and now the Skywalker is rising? I just don’t know… like I said, I like the sound, but I think my disdain for the shit film itself makes it genuinely difficult to be unbiased about the title.

The title is the movie: assembled to be safe, to be familiar, to hit the same notes without taking any risk. The Force Awakens is just another way of saying A New Hope, just like the film itself, the title is a remake dressed up as a sequel.

The choice of words here is also boring… there’s none of the magic Phantom Menace offered, none of the oomph of Empire Strikes Back. Having ‘the Force‘ officially in a title should be more exciting but this truly feels like the product of a focus group that had one goal: play it safe and don’t scare anyone (well look at that, just like the movie!).

“Solo” already means something in English, which makes it immediately confusing as a title with no other words around it. What was the plan here if this movie became successful? More spin-offs with just character names? What about the sequels?

The Han Solo novel series had titles like The Paradise Snare and The Hutt Gambit, strange words that feel like they belong to another universe, Solo: A Star Wars Story is a filename.

The Mandalorian & Grogu is simple but bold. It takes nerve to put two words that mean nothing out there for the general audience, especially when most people just know Baby Yoda as Baby Yoda. I’m dreading the fact this movie is the franchise’s big theatrical return after nine years, but I respect having the words GROGU spelled out in big on the movie poster.

Star Wars: Starfighter is the most Shawn Levy movie title ever. It’s ABSOLUTE bottom tier and I blame the damn repetition of STAR WARS with STARFIGHTER, you’re saying the same thing twice and it’s not even catchy. Give me a word I have to look up.

The Hunt for Ben Solo would have been one of the best titles in the series, it announces that Ben Solo is alive and he’s being hunted? Say no more! ‘The Hunt for’ is also a great set of words to open with, it creates stakes and momentum before the movie starts. I’m still not over this film… we lost a great movie and an all-time title.

A great movie title function like a promise, the best ones: Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Phantom Menace, all use a couple words to tease you with a premise that gets your imagination running with all sorts of possibilities, just to deliver a movie that ideally exceeds your expectations and rewards your curiosity. Star Wars as a series built its mythology on wonder, the titles should too.

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