‘Star Wars: Rogue One’ Missing Key Traditional Element, Creative Team Wants Standalone Movies Distinct From Original Saga Films

‘Star Wars: Rogue One’ may be missing a key traditional element since the creative team intends for the standalone movies in the franchise distinct from the original saga films.

According to Nerdist, the first ever standalone film in the ‘Star Wars’ anthology will be missing the iconic crawl at the opening sequence. This crawl has been featured in all ‘Star Wars’ saga films in the space opera franchise – from 1977’s ‘A New Hope’ to 2015’s ‘The Force Awakens’.

Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy explained that the reason they considered excluding the crawl was because ‘Rogue One’ was not part of the original saga films. This decision may set the template for upcoming standalone films in the cinematic franchise such as the yet untitled Han Solo film scheduled to be released on May 2018.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Kennedy admitted that no official decision had been made just yet but the film’s creative team are looking for alternatives.

She said, “It’s something that we’re right in the midst of discussing even now, so I don’t want to say definitively what we’re doing… The crawl and some of those elements live so specifically within the ‘saga’ films that we are having a lot of discussion about what will define the [stand-alone] Star Wars Stories separate and apart from the saga films. So we’re right in the middle of talking about that.”

The famous ‘Star Wars’ opening crawl has been a signature device in all of Lucasfilm’s seven live-action films. The crawl opens with static text, "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." followed by the logo then finally the crawl describing a backstory for the current film.

The crawl is accompanied by the main ‘Star Wars’ title theme composed and conducted by John Williams. It has also been referenced by various media in popular culture.

‘Star Wars: Rogue One’ is an upcoming science-fiction and action film directed by Gareth Edwards and written by Gary Whitta and Chris Weitz. It is the first in a planned anthology of standalone films, but is the 9th film in the cinematic series. It is produced by Lucasfilms and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

The film is produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Simon Emanuel, Allison Shearmur, and Tony To with John Swartz co-producing. John Knoll, and Jason D. McGatlin are executive producing.