If you were holding out hope that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story would feature that iconic opening crawl, we’ve got some bad news; in line with early rumors, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has confirmed that the anthology movie will ditch the franchise’s signature opening as a means to differentiate Gareth Edwards’ imminent spinoff from the core saga.
Word comes by way of Variety, where Kennedy compared Rogue One to a World War II-style adventure film. That aligns with earlier interviews with Edwards himself, who made it his mission to place audiences in the trenches so to speak with cinéma vérité filmmaking not typically seen in the Star Wars universe. If nothing else, it’s a shining example of Disney and Lucasfilm’s commitment to craft something genuinely new under the anthology format, and that’s something that will seemingly carry over to Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s Han Solo movie in 2018.
Circling back to Rogue One, however, Kennedy’s explained the studio’s reasoning behind its decision to ditch the opening crawl, stating, “we felt that’s so indicative of what those saga films are. Initially, we probably will begin the film in a way that is traditional, with just the title.”
Looking further afield, the head honcho then addressed the proposition of a female director being brought in to helm a future Star Wars movie, something that fans have long requested since Disney first acquired Lucasfilm back in 2012.
“We want to make sure that when we bring a female director in to do “Star Wars,” they’re set up for success. They’re gigantic films, and you can’t come into them with essentially no experience.”
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is earmarked for December 16. Early box office projections are beginning to pour in, and things are certainly looking good for Edwards’ anthology flick.