It seems that Rogue One is already living up to its namesake as the rogue or black sheep of the Star Wars family, with reshoots as well as a rumored “darker” tone than the rest of the franchise fans have grown to love and obsess about over the last four decades. Beyond the feel of the film, it looks like Rogue One is officially breaking form, with the iconic opening crawl likely not being featured at the beginning of the movie.
This decision has been rumored for months, with the Lucasfilm brass not taking the move lightly, but keep in mind that this wouldn’t (technically) be the first time the crawl was absent from a feature. The Clone Wars animated movie was the first Star Wars movie in theaters to not feature an opening crawl. But that wasn’t a live action movie, so this is different, right?
Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy basically confirmed the news to ET Online at Star Was Celebration Europe:
“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.”
Director Gareth Edwards backed up the words of his boss.
“There’s this feeling that if we did a crawl, then it’ll create another movie. And so the honest answer is you’ll have to wait and see.”
An opening crawl – or even a WW2-inspired newsreel a la the Clone Wars movie – isn’t necessary to enjoy the galaxy far, far away. But the movie will still seem weird without it.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
