In branching off from Disney and Lucasfilm’s core saga, director Gareth Edwards has been tasked with lending Rogue One: A Star Wars Story an identity of its own, effectively diving deep into the period betwixt Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.
Part and parcel of that creative approach will be to put some distance between Edwards’ Anthology movie and the Star Wars movies of old – The Force Awakens included – and could result in Rogue One cutting out a key element of this most prized universe: the opening crawl.
Appearing at last weekend’s Star Wars Celebration Europe, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy was quizzed about the crawl, which looks set to be left on the editing room floor come December: “You know, we’re in the midst of talking about it, but I don’t think these films will have an opening crawl. I think that’s what we kind of telegraphed at the beginning of the event today.”
It chimes with what Kennedy previously said about the iconic opening, and how she believes cutting the crawl from Rogue One will help the film stand on its own two feet.
“The crawl and some of those elements live so specifically within the ‘saga’ films that we are having a lot of discussion about what will define the [stand-alone] Star Wars Stories separate and apart from the saga films. So we’re right in the middle of talking about that.”
With Edwards behind the lens, Disney’s ragtag crew of Rebels consists of Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen), Rebel fighter Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), Alan Tudyk’s droid K-2SO. They’ll go up against villainous Imperial leader Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), while there are also roles for Mads Mikkelsen as Jyn’s father, James Earl Jones as Darth Vader and Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma.
Chronicling a rebellion built on hope, Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will shoot for theaters on December 16.
