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I just read the Vanity Fair issue about Star Wars, and one of the mistakes that the editor had to fix was that one article mistakenly referred to the upcoming movie as "Star Wars: Episode 7: The Force Awakens" when the title is actually just "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."

Past movies have all included the full title with the episode number - any reason why JJ Abrams has decided not to continue that pattern with the new film?

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    So that when they call the next one episode 11 they can come back and rename this one episode 10? And then make some terrible prequels to fill 7-9.
    – razethestray
    Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 15:47
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    It is Episode 7, from a certain point of view.
    – Praxis
    Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 16:05
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    JJ also felt strongly about breaking the pattern by having no colon in Star Trek into Darkness....
    – Praxis
    Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 16:39
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    Likely Disney made the choice since buying Lucas films
    – user16696
    Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 18:29
  • It probably is purely a Disney thing, as cde says. The studio probably thinks that "Episode 7" will put off casual movie-goers who might fear that they'll have to go back and watch 12 hours of footage before having a chance at understanding / enjoying the new film.
    – Praxis
    Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 20:10

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Not all of the past movies included the Episode number in the title. The prequel trilogy did (as can be seen in the Oscar nominations list that includes The Phantom Menace).

The original trilogy, on the other hand, didn't use Episode numbers in the official title, as you can see in the Oscar nominations list that includes Return of the Jedi (in fact "Star Wars" isn't even in the name!), as well as the lack of "Episode VI" on the original Return of the Jedi posters:

One could surmise that this is an effort to distance itself from the prequel trilogy. One could also look at it as a stylistic quirk -- compare it to J.J. Abrams purposely avoiding titling the Star Trek sequel with either a "2" or a colon.

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    @DVK maybe they think a woman being forced into a revealing and degrading outfit by a dangerous and disgusting crime lord isn't something to celebrate. lol, I've never understood why people seem to glorify what I'm sure must've been a horrifically traumatic experience for Leia.
    – RedCaio
    Commented Nov 29, 2015 at 6:16
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    @DVK: Most of us are grown adults with a great respect for other human beings. We don't find there to be anything "wrong" with us when we opt not to objectify and sexualise people for no reason. Quite the contrary, in fact.
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    Commented Dec 18, 2015 at 0:17
  • You said that "Star Wars" is not the name, but it's embedded into the line above "Return" (in case that was missed).
    – XaolingBao
    Commented May 3, 2016 at 5:29

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