Star Wars: The Force Awakens Was Initially Titled Shadow of the Empire

Over Twitter this week, Lucasfilm’s Pablo Hidalgo revealed that Episode VII initially had a very familiar title: Shadow of the Empire, not to be confused with the 1996 novel and multimedia project Shadows of the Empire, which inspired video games, comic books, and a slough of merchandise tie-ins.

@justinlasalata for longest time, the TFA title was the same as an old novel. Thankfully it changed. :) With so many books, it’s inevitable

— Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) December 25, 2015

@VegaArts_@justinlasalata it was Shadow (singular) of the Empire for a while.

— Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) December 25, 2015

Much like the near-casting of Hayden Christensen, it’s interesting to consider the different creative differences Episode VII could have gone in. Even if Shadow of the Empire wasn’t already taken, I still personally prefer The Force Awakens, since that title puts an optimistic emphasis on Rey and my space boyfriends rather than The First Order.

Thoughts, gang?

(via Polygon)

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