Despite all those reports of extensive reshoots and big changes being made behind the scenes, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story turned out great. Fans and critics alike have embraced the movie, and as it closes in on $800 million worldwide, it’s fair to say that the first of Disney’s Anthology films has been a resounding success.
However, if there’s one nitpick pretty much everyone can agree on, it’s the fact that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story didn’t feature an opening crawl. We knew long before the movie’s release that that would be the case, but it was still strange for an installment in the Star Wars franchise to kick off without one.
In a recent interview with Empire, director Gareth Edwards revealed that a crawl was originally included, but ultimately dropped.
“The first screenplay that Gary Whitta wrote had a crawl in it – and you learn doing that that ‘a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away’ has four dots in it, not three. You get extra marks for that. And then at some point, probably like six months before we were filming, we were in a meeting, and they talked about not having an opening crawl, because these are standalone films, not part of the sagas. And if I’m honest, there was an initial kind of like, “whaaaa? I want the crawl!” The opening sequence is kind of the crawl of our movie. It’s like the setup. And our film is also born out of a crawl – the reason we exist is because of a previous crawl, so it feels like this infinite loop that will never end. It’s a small thing to give up to get to do Star Wars.”
So, it sounds like we’re going to have to get used to these spinoffs not having opening crawls in order to distinguish them from the main saga. That makes sense to at least some extent, but fans would probably still appreciate a little background before these stories kick off. Then again, having no opening crawl allows the studio to handle things in a very different way, so it’s probably for the best.
Tell us, were you upset that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story didn’t include a crawl? Sound off below with your thoughts.
