Why The Mandalorian & Grogu Doesn’t Have an Opening Crawl (& What It Really Means for Star Wars)

The Mandalorian and Grogu breaks a Star Wars tradition, but for an important reason. When George Lucas created Star Wars, he wanted viewers to feel as though they were dropped into the action – even before he later retitled the first film “A New Hope.” He used a Flash Gordon-style opening crawl to catch audiences up on the basics, and then launched straight into the Tantive IV pursuit. Over the years, these opening crawls became an important Star Wars tradition.

The Mandalorian and Grogu has opening text in a similar font to 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. But Lucasfilm has deliberately chosen not to give it a crawl, a smart visual cue that subtly resets audience expectations; we’re not in the Skywalker saga right now. It’s a very deliberate decision, a strategic choice that fits with the studio’s longer-term approach.

Read Next

The Mandalorian & Grogu Cast Guide: 8 New & Returning Star Wars Actors & Characters Explained

Opening Crawls Are For the Skywalker Saga

Play video

Back in 2016, audiences were taken aback when Rogue One: A Star Wars Story didn’t have an opening crawl. To be fair, one wasn’t strictly necessary; audiences already knew most of what they needed to, and the film started with a prologue scene setting up Jyn Erso’s story. At the time, then-Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy suggested the crawl was to differentiate between the Skywalker saga and the anthology films. Solo proved the point in 2018, with static text to make it stand apart.

Things appeared to change in 2023, when Kennedy mentioned the opening crawls while speaking to EW. At the time, Lucasfilm had just been told to “ramp up” theatrical production again – leading to the announcement of three upcoming Star Wars films (none of which have actually happened yet). Explaining why the opening crawl hadn’t appeared in the various Star Wars Disney+ TV shows, Kennedy explained that “the crawl is for movies,” and it would be coming back. She seemed to be hinting that the opening crawl would now differentiate between big-screen and small-screen releases, but it seems we’ve reverted to the previous model.

That’s a wise decision. It openly places The Mandalorian and Grogu in a separate category to the main films, reminding audiences to expect something that’s a lot smaller in scale (and perhaps resetting box office expectations among critics and fans). But it also feels like an implicit promise, because it really does feel as though the Star Wars opening crawl will inevitably return in the end – perhaps even with next year’s Star Wars: Starfighter, a film that feels more like a franchise relaunch. By not featuring an opening crawl in The Mandalorian and Grogu, Star Wars makes its inevitable return feel that much bigger.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!