'Rogue One' Gets A Fanmade Opening Crawl To Set The Stage For The 'Star Wars' Story

One of the biggest questions throughout the development of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was how the opening of the movie would be handled. Every Star Wars movie has began with an opening crawl and the signature Star Wars them to help set the stage. But Rogue One isn't exactly like other Star Wars movie in that it's not a regular episode in the saga, but rather the first spin-off in the A Star Wars Story line of movies. That's why the movie ended up not having an opening crawl.

However, some fans have found the lack of an opening crawl a bit of a disappointment while others who are not hardcore fans maybe could have used an opening crawl to help set the stage and clarify where in the Star Wars timeline the story takes place. One fan decided to take matters into his own hands by creating an opening crawl to begin the movie in the tradition of Star Wars.

Here's the fanmade Rogue One opening crawl that originally appeared on Reddit (via THR):

If you can't watch the video right now, here's the text of the opening crawl:

The Jedi are all but extinct, the Republic has fallen and in their wake, the Galactic Empire has engulfed the far reaches of the galaxy in fear. Persecuted members of the Old Republic have been thrust into hiding. Only members of the REBEL ALLIANCE dare take a stand against the ruthless Imperial forces. Deep in the Outer Rim territories, the dastardly Director Krennic has discovered the location of a long lost friend; one capable of completing the Empire's most powerful weapon yet...

Creator Andrew Shackley made the scrolling text with the help of an online tool that lets you make your own Star Wars-style opening crawls. Speaking with THR about the lack of an opening crawl on Rogue One, he said:

"If any film in the new Star Wars canon needed a crawl just to let people know where we are in time in this universe, it was Rogue One. At the very least, I feel these words give added weight to the opening prologue of the film."

The lack of a crawl is what helps set the story apart from the rest of the Star Wars movies, and I didn't mind it, to be honest. I think what makes the opening crawl in this movie particularly challenging is the fact that it's only accurate and relevant with regards to the opening scene. There's a large stretch of time that passes between the opening of Rogue One and where we pick up the story.

Even so, this opening crawl does a pretty nice job of setting the stage for what we're about to see unfold. And the environment in which the story takes place doesn't really change from how it's described in the crawl. That's what makes this fanmade opening crawl work infinitely better than the others you can find all over YouTube. The only thing that I don't like is the use of "Anthology" since it doesn't accurately describe what Lucasfilm is doing with Star Wars, which is why they swapped out that descriptor to begin with.

If you didn't like the removal of an opening crawl in Rogue One, you weren't the only one who thought it was a bad idea. The original title designer for Star Wars, Dan Perri, voiced his opinion to Heat Vision, saying:

"Frankly, it is a huge mistake, because the image is so iconic and it's so important to tens of millions, hundreds of millions of fans.  I couldn't imagine it starting without that. It's foolish."

Well, the "mistake" has been made, and presumably all of the A Star Wars Story movies will follow suit. So it's just something we'll have to deal with, whether we like it or not.