Rogue One Writer On Why Fans Will Never See Its Opening Crawl

03/17/2017 03:48 pm EDT

Director Gareth Edwards ignited a lot of fan speculation earlier this week when he participated in a Reddit Ask Me Anything thread in promotion of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

While he answered some questions about cut scenes and Vader's patented intimidating demeanor, he also spoke about the existence of the film's opening crawl.


Every main Star Wars film has a few staples that have been a part of the series ever since it first released 40 years ago, including a John Williams score, soft "wiping" transitions between scenes, and the opening text at the beginning of each film to set the tone.

Who could forget the classic opening to the Phantom Menace: "Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes in outlying star systems is in dispute."?

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Rogue One deviated from many of these traditions, starting with a cold open set in the past.

And when Edwards stated a version of the crawl existed somewhere out there, pointing toward writer Gary Whitta as having knowledge of it, Cinema Blend went straight to the source and asked him.

But Whitta put a damper in hopes when he said it was unlikely ANYONE would ever get to see the crawl as it exists, a couple of different reasons.

The crawl was a part of an early draft and was never meant to be a part of the final film, though he did manage to make it the same word count as the original crawl from A New Hope, written by George Lucas' colleague and prolific filmmaker Brian de Palma.

But this unofficial draft was also subject to all of the terms of the non-disclosure agreement Whitta signed when he took the job. So even if he wanted to, he contractually cannot release it.

Plus, he said, that his version of the crawl is so rough that it's unworthy of the fans to consider as part of the canon. So he probably wouldn't release it even if he could.

Wouldn't if he could, couldn't if he would. But really, do we even need it? Rogue One works well as it is.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will release digitally on March 24 before hitting Blu-ray and DVD on April 4.

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MORE ROGUE ONE NEWS: ·Darth Vader's Epic Scene Nearly Didn't Happen
·Why Blu-Ray Won't Feature Deleted Scenes
·How And Why He Rogue One's Ending Changed

Directed by Gareth Edwards, it's the first of the new standalone features from Lucasfilm and Disney, which take place outside the core "Skywalker Saga" of films noted by an Episode number. Rogue One tells the story of the small band of rebels that were tasked with stealing the plans to the first Death Star.

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