The Next ‘Star Wars’ Films Will Have Opening Crawls
Out of everything iconic about Star Wars, perhaps the most synonymous thing with the brand is the opening crawl. John Williams’ classic theme and a wall of floating text has welcomed generations into a galaxy far, far away since day 1. But with the ending of the Skywalker Saga, many have been wondering about the fate of the crawl.
Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy has put those worries to rest. In a new conversation with Entertainment Weekly, Kennedy was frank in stating that “the crawl’s coming back” for future Star Wars movies. She went on to simply say:
“The crawl is for movies.”
Rogue One and Solo: A Star Wars Story are the only live-action films without a full crawl. Solo had a brief setup, but Rogue One threw you right into the action. Kennedy has previously said that had to do with differentiating them from the saga films. Now, the goal seems to be to give movies their own distinct feel from television.
Kennedy also had some things to say about the next batch of Star Wars films. She explained why it was necessary to bring back Rey for the post-The Rise of Skywalker film, directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. She said:
“We realized post-war, post–First Order rise of the New Jedi Order, we left Episode IX with Rey making a commitment to Luke Skywalker that she would rebuild the Jedi Order. And so here we are — we’re ready to do that. And it took a lot of discussion because obviously we’ve been developing stories in different spaces, and television has been a big focus of our attention right now. But there’s still so much interest in what happens after The Rise of Skywalker. So we’re excited to be doing that.”
Without giving anything away, Kennedy said that it’s possible more sequel trilogy characters could be returning alongside Rey. She also dove into some of the themes they will be exploring in a galaxy that doesn’t have any apparent major threat:
“The question we’re going to ask with the New Jedi Order and Rey is: Does the galaxy need them anymore? Do they want them back? So there’s a lot of food for thought in what we’re doing, whether it’s in the past, present, or future.”
Kennedy clarified something about Dave Filoni’s movie as well. We know his film will culminate the so-called MandoVerse, currently made up by The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and Skeleton Crew. Interestingly, Kennedy implied we might be underselling the scope they are going for. She said:
“I hesitate to say it’s a big meetup from just those [series]… because Dave has been developing Star Wars storytelling inside Clone Wars and Rebels and so much of the work he has done for 20 years. So it will be little bits of all of that. There are a lot of sources he’s drawing from to see where we’re going.”
One thing is for certain: With three upcoming films set across wildly different eras that spawn over 25,000 years, having an opening crawl will set the stage needed to create the prime experience. It seems like Lucasfilm has learned a lesson in that regard from the Rogue One and Solo “crawl or no crawl” experiments.
Nate uses his love for Star Wars and movies in general as a way to cope with the pain of being a Minnesota sports fan. When he's not at the theater, you can usually find Nate reading a comic, listening to an audiobook, or playing a Mario video game for the 1,000th time.
