The Star Wars Opening Crawl Is Coming Back - And Thank The Maker For That
Star Wars Celebration took place over the weekend in London and, to say the very least, the event brought with it a ton of news. The biggest thing that we finally learned is what the future of "Star Wars" movies looks like, with three films coming our way over the next several years, all in different time periods from different directors. So this won't be like the sequel trilogy where it's all happening as part of the same chunk of the ongoing saga. But not to be lost in the onslaught of news, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy has confirmed that the opening crawl will return when these films eventually hit theaters.
Kennedy confirmed the news in a chat with Entertainment Weekly and, though her words were brief, she did not leave any room for confusion. When asked if the new films will contain an opening crawl — something we first saw when "A New Hope" debuted in theaters in '77 — Kennedy simply said, "The crawl's coming back." The executive was pressed a bit and was asked if this would just be for the New Jedi Order movie that will feature Daisy Ridley returning as Rey. "No. The crawl is for movies," Kennedy said definitively.
This is rather crucial as the Disney era of Lucasfilm has been a bit inconsistent in this department. While "The Force Awakens" and the other sequel films did feature opening text crawls to help set the stage for the film in question, standalones such as "Rogue One" and "Solo" did not. Now, it seems that the crawl will be a trademark of "Star Wars" films of any kind in the future. That is certainly welcome news.
A much-needed return to the old ways
First and foremost, there is something about that burst of John Williams music and that yellow text that helps a "Star Wars" movie truly feel like a "Star Wars" movie. Honestly, the abrupt start of "Rogue One" felt pretty jarring as they tried to figure out a way to get around not having an opening crawl. "Solo" went another route, featuring a couple of stray lines of opening text not in crawl form. That was closer to right, but it still ultimately felt off. So the fact that Kennedy has said to hell with it and is bringing the crawl back for the films is nice and will bring a uniform feeling to a galaxy far, far away on the big screen.
Beyond that, with "Star Wars" not being a chronological thing anymore, a few paragraphs of opening text could go a long way in setting the stage for new movies. Heck, "Rogue One" probably could have benefited greatly from setting the stage a bit with a little bit of exposition in the form of a few paragraphs of text. Similarly, Dave Filoni's movie that will be the culmination of the Disney+ shows such as "The Mandalorian" will almost certainly need an opening crawl to lay things out for more casual viewers. It's a great way to help these movies feel like "Star Wars" while also alleviating any confusion for audiences who may not be as obsessive in following every facet of the franchise.
The next "Star Wars" movie, whatever it ends up being, is currently dated for December 19, 2025.