April Fools? News Article Teases 'Star Wars IX' Time Travel

April Fools' Day brings out the prankster in all of us, but it may be that one article might have accidentally responded to some Star Wars fans' desires.

Sunday Express, a publication out of the United Kingdom, ran a piece stating that Star Wars IX director and writer JJ Abrams will make use of time travel in the last instalment of the current trilogy.

"Since I’m concluding the trilogy with Episode IX, I can confirm that the events of The Last Jedi will be undone thanks to time travel now being canon in the Star Wars universe," Abrams reportedly said. “Rest assured Rey’s parents will probably be Han and Leia, Snoke won’t die until after an epic lightsaber battle at the end where his true identity is revealed, and Luke won’t be so sulky.”

Time travel in Star Wars? Since when?

Time travel became canon in Star Wars Rebels. In the episode "The World Between Worlds," Jedi apprentice Ezra Bridger discovers, through the Force, he can actually time travel and ends up saving Ahsoka during her battle with Darth Vader.

It's no secret there are many out there that have a serious hate on for The Last Jedi. Outside of a flying Leia, there was also the climactic scene at the end between Luke Skywalker and his former protégé, Kylo Ren, which put Star Wars fans up in arms. According to Mashable, The Last Jedi director Rian Johnston had the ideal response to those who were freaked out by the highly charged fight scene. Johnston posted several pictures of his copy of the book The Jedi Path in an attempt to prove the Star Wars universe sides with him. However, The Jedi Path was effectively scrapped from the canon when Disney acquired Star Wars. Books published prior to that acquisition were no longer deemed canon, and The Jedi Path falls into that category.

When Sunday Express posted its April Fools' joke, though, it seems there are those on Twitter who might be eager to see some time travel action hit the Star Wars universe. Two days ago, there were tweets such as this:

"Star Wars The Last Jedi wasn't a great movie, I'm so let down right now, that I hope Episode IX will feature time travel to retcon The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi," Twitter user tobbywazzy wrote.

Twitter user KayfabeKent wrote on March 1st, "Time travel is now possible in Star Wars and people are hoping JJ Abrams is going to use it in Episode 9 to 'fix what happened' in The Last Jedi...I think he’s going to use it so they can do a time jump and explain Leia’s death."

Then, when the April Fools' article ran, this response hit Twitter, courtesy of user Horrorlover1990: "Thank you JJ!!!!!!!!"

While one might expect that the secrets of Star Wars Episode IX will be a tightly guarded secret that JJ Abrams is keeping close to his chest, it would appear that the rumor of time travel being somehow involved in Episode IX is an idea that just won't disappear.

Those who did not think The Last Jedi was true to the Force would sooner see the events of the movie undone, it seems. Abrams told The Late Show With Stephen Colbert's eponymous host that the script for Star Wars IX was done back in February 2018. Whether he will make use of time travel remains to be seen, even with fans chomping at the bit to see what's next for the struggling Alliance, especially in the wake of Carrie Fisher's (aka General Leia Organa) death, which was not depicted in the movie.

Star Wars IX is slated to hit theaters December 20th, 2019.