Star Wars needs to rebrand its 'A Star Wars Story' spin-offs

We're two movies deep into the Star Wars spin-offs and it appears that the folks in charge of branding over there are firmly set on the subtitle A Star Wars Story.

This is not good.

A Star Wars Story is a bad subtitle. It's long. It's janky. You can't even really call it a subtitle. If anything, "A Star Wars Story" is a statement about a movie, as if somebody is in the middle of a sentence explaining to their unaware friend what Rogue One and Solo are.

In fact, we shouldn't even be using a subtitle at all. The overarching brand should come first, just like with every other series that has ever existed. It's not Fellowship of the Ring: Lord of the Rings, and it sure as hell isn't Empire Strikes Back: Star Wars Episode V. Put "Star Wars" front and center.

The names Star Wars: Rogue One and Star Wars: Solo simply make more sense than their current iterations. We all get the concept. It's not like anyone who's a Star Wars fan is going to get them confused with the numbered episodes from the main series.

But if we really, truly, absolutely need to differentiate the spin-offs from the main series, consider styling the movies as Star Wars Stories: Title. Doing it this way is just slightly different from the current branding and it sounds less... off.

There's a reason that HBO renamed George R.R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire to the sleek and simple Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones takes its name from the subtitle of the first book, A Game of Thrones, and HBO very smartly dropped the leading "A." Very rarely does a title that starts with the word "A" sound good.

We're only two movies in to this whole spin-off thing. It's not too late to rebrand. Look at the Rambo series. The first Rambo movie was called First Blood. The second was Rambo: First Blood Part II. Then they finally nailed it with the third installment: Rambo III.

The first Star Wars movie was originally titled Star Wars and later rebranded to Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope. It's not too late.

Call the spin-offs anything other Title: A Star Wars Story. How about Star Wars Anthology: Title as a nod toward the original name for the spin-offs? Or maybe even Star Wars Tales: Title or Star Wars Legends: Title.

Hell, call them Young Star Wars: Title. Star Wars Spin-Offs: Title. Just get rid of A Star Wars Story.