STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE – You Wanted A Text Crawl? Here’s Your Darn Text Crawl!

The text crawl. This has long since been a staple of the Star Wars franchise ever since it first graced its way onto the big screen in 1977’s Star Wars: A New Hope. Inspired by the old school serials of yesteryear (such as Buck Rogers), they were meant to catch audiences up on the goings onin the week’s program before thrusting forth with the twists and turns in that episode. Though the crawls may have been inspired by older programs, it didn’t take long before they become solely associated with Star Wars.

In the decades since A New Hope hit theaters, we’ve seen the text crawl in the opening of every Star Wars saga flick to date. Between the cheesy on-screen text and John Williams, it became just as integral to Star Wars experience as the Fox fanfare that played over the Lucasfilm logo. Well, like the Fox fanfare before it, the text crawl has gone the way of the dodo — at least with the standalone films. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was the first film to nix said text crawl, and while it makes a lot of sense for the franchise to get rid of them so that they aren’t hamstringed by the narrative tropes created by the saga films, they didn’t go without a fight.

In fact, fans are still arguing over this omission from Lucasfilm. In some minds, it isn’t truly a Star Wars film until we see that text on screen. So adamant was one fan (writer and reporter Andrew Shackley) that he took to writing his own.

You can check out the video of the text below!

For those not able to view the video, the text was written as follows:

“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…”

All I have to say is…meh. Everyone knows the last sentence is supposed to end with four periods, not three

All joking aside, while I understand fans’ associations with the opening, it’s quite restrictive, and doesn’t give the filmmakers the ability to tell a wholly unique story somewhere down the line. Sure, for now, Rogue One can be summed up with an opening crawl, but at some point, it was bound to get in the way. Better to throw it out the window now so that they’d have the freedom to do whatever they want down the line.

Additionally, the omission of a text crawl would allow the saga films to be bigger events for fans, but hey, that’s just one fan’s opinion. 

What do you think? Do you wish Rogue One: A Star Wars Story had gotten a text crawl, or do you appreciate that Lucasfilm are allowing these films to stand more on their own? What did you think of this fan’s crawl? Let us know your thoughts down below!

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SOURCE: Reddit (via Star Wars News Net)

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