Star Wars is Trying to Expand its Empire…Probably

Disney and Lucasfilm have applied for a new set of Star Wars trademarks centering around the name Star Wars: Rivals, and their purpose isn’t clear.

Star Wars has continued having a moment for the past few years. Oh, it always maintained a place of prestige in the world of pop culture, but then Disney completed its purchase of Lucasfilm. Now, not only do we have a sequel trilogy, but spinoff movies, a new series in the form of Star Wars Rebels, newly canon books…and now, possibly, Star Wars: Rivals.

Well, maybe. There’s just no official announcement yet.

Let’s take a step back here and start by tipping our hat to io9. Star Wars Post’s Max Palas noticed two new trademark applications made by Lucasfilm and, naturally, tweeted about it:

(Check out all of those The Last Jedi applications, by the way. Lucasfilm appears to have covered all of the bases possible.)

io9 has the details of what the two different applications cover. The long and short of it is that Star Wars: Rivals might be anything and everything. Now, io9 and Palas both speculate that this could be a new animated series. However, the second application can also be for, and we quote from io9 here, “downloadable mobile applications” as well. Interestingly enough, some comments on the io9 article have come to the same conclusion we just did. Let’s draw out why this might be so.

The world of mobile gaming is not one that we already associate with Star Wars all that much. Sure, there are games using the franchise already, but the use of the word Rivals makes us think that this could very well be a game you play with your friends, making them … your rivals. It could be a co-op game as well, but that’s less fun, isn’t it?

About the only thing it probably isn’t would be a series of physical books, although “downloadable electronic publications” is included in one of the applications. Additionally, the first application is for “education and entertainment services.” Those two make us lean towards a mobile game right now. At the same time, that’s a full shot in the dark.

Next: Rogue One's Blu-Ray Release Date is Here

For now, we’ll have to rest in the knowledge that The Last Jedi has so many trademark applications. At least one will probably go through.