[Editor’s Note: a few minor, general spoilers for The Mandalorian and Grogu are ahead.]
Recently, attenders at CinemaCon in Las Vegas were shown the first 15 or so minutes from The Mandalorian and Grogu, as were a handful of reporters in Los Angeles.
Assuming this is the exact same cut as the final movie, it confirms that there will be no opening crawl attached. That was assumed, since only the Skywalker Saga films have included that, whereas the other standalone movies (Rogue One and Solo) did not include it, at least in the traditional sense. But the footage shown did include something surprising which, if in the final cut, will mark a first for the franchise: it included opening credits.
After an opening action sequence leading into the title card, credits then began appearing on-screen while the movie continued. Members of the cast are listed on-screen, including Pedro Pascal (Din Djarin), Jeremy Allen White (Rotta the Hutt), Brendan Wayne (stunt man for the Mandalorian), Lateef Crowder (stunt man for the Mandalorian), and Sigourney Weaver. This would make it the first time that opening credits have appeared on-screen in Star Wars.
All in all, that’s a relatively minor change – but here is where a Star Wars history lesson might be appropriate. Opening credits used to be the standard in Hollywood – watch any old movies and you’ll see the credits appearing at the beginning. That was according to industry-wide standards – standards that George Lucas bucked against when making Star Wars. In the first movie, released in 1977, Lucas began with an opening crawl explaining the set-up in-universe, and then he did not have any credits until the end. This was a big no-no in Hollywood, but they turned a blind eye to this as a one-time exception.
Until Lucas did it again with The Empire Strikes Back in 1980.
Upon learning of his plans for this, the Director’s Guild of America, Writer’s Guild of America, and Motion Picture Association of America levied massive fines against Lucas and director Irvin Kershner, even trying to pull the movie from theaters before it premiered. All because the credits were not at the beginning. Lucas held his ground but paid the fines, in part to protect his director, but this forever damaged his relationship with these guilds. In light of the uproar over Empire, Lucas resigned his membership in all three guilds, instead branching outside of the ‘insider’ bubble to independently make his movies. Given his stature as the creator of Star Wars, founder of Lucasfim, and head of Industrial Light & Magic, Lucas had enough power in the industry to do so.
This had significant ramifications moving forward. For example, it seems that Steven Spielberg (who also had run-ins with the guilds) was Lucas’s first choice to direct Return of the Jedi, but Spielberg was reportedly barred from doing so because of Lucas’s decision to withdraw from the guilds. Richard Marquand wound up directing the final chapter of the trilogy.
Lest one think that Lucas’s issues were exclusively about the opening credits, his distrust of the industry ran deep. He always desired to be able to make his films without studio executives meddling with them, and he was often willing to buck traditional standards, seeing how far he could push things. In that way, this issue seems to be the tipping point, but not the entire story. It allowed Lucas to exercise complete control over his movies moving forward, which was exactly what he always wanted in the first place. However, it is significant that the opening credits were an issue Lucas refused to budge on. He viewed his Star Wars films as a serialized story, where you’re thrown into the middle of an ongoing story and are immediately caught up in a galaxy far, far away. To do opening credits would risk pulling audiences out of the full immersion in the in-universe story.
In the end, Lucas seems to have won. Nowadays, it’s not at all strange to see movies have no credits until the end. But, apparently, the newest Star Wars film will. It’s a very minor thing overall, but I’m not sure I like it.
Star Wars Thoughts 