There has been a lot of talk about how Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will be different from the Star Wars movies that we know. One way that may take shape is as it regards the opening text crawl. There has been some talk that the new Star Wars spinoff may ditch the text opening for something else, and a new report seems to confirm that the opening of Rogue One will be different somehow.
While exactly how Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will open was not discussed, Star Wars News Net is reporting that they have a source telling them the new film opens in a way that is "different from the classic Star Wars films." While their source is remaining anonymous, they have enough confidence in the source that they're now claiming the film will not have the classic text opening.
Up until now, Star Wars films have all opened the same way. The fanfare of the theme song hits while the words STAR WARS appear on the screen before floating back into the blackness of space. Then text floats up from the bottom of the screen giving us our episode number and title. But that's just the thing, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is not a proper "episode" in the Star Wars saga, it's a separate story about an entirely different set of people. As such, Lucasfilm wants to intentionally do things to make the new movie feel like it's something different. Several months ago the studio's head, Kathleen Kennedy, said that eliminating the classic opening was one way they might make that change.
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.
If this new report is to be believed, then the decision has been made and the text is out. So how does Rogue One: A Star Wars Story open then? Will the movie even open with the words Star Wars? We have to assume the title of the movie will appear somehow. If not part of the opening text crawl, how will it be done? Will we get a movie opening like any other, with some opening credits over a black screen before we fade into the action, or will the movie tray and do something different? Will this be the start of a new opening sequence that will unique to the Anthology movies?
Would you like to have the classic crawl back, or are you open to something different in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story? Let us know your ideas in the comments below.
