The 'Star Wars' Opening Crawl Returns in New Instagram Photo

After sitting one Star Wars movie out, the opening crawl is back for Episode VIII.

Writer/Director Rian Johnson posted a photo to his Instagram account that showed off the newly christened title of the movie, The Last Jedi, tucked perfectly into frame in the beloved text crawl seen in every episodic Star Wars movie so far.

Johnson’s social media accounts have been a fragmented, non-spoilery treasure trove of sneak peeks into the Episode VIII creative process. He posted pics of Luke Skywalker’s robe, Lupita Nyong’o in a motion capture suit as Maz Kanata, some quick looks at the Rebel and Imperial forces, and more. Fans love it, and it no doubt makes Johnson’s job easier knowing he can have a bit of fun before those fans will obsess over it all once the movie gets released.

This one is pure fan service — there’s nothing that gets a Star Wars nerd tuned into the power of the Force more than seeing that opening crawl. Apparently, the same feeling goes for Johnson too. The caption on the Instagram post reads, “Felt so good to drop this into the cut this morning.”

There was a big hubbub among Star Wars fans last year about whether there would be an opening crawl in the first standalone movie, Rogue One. But filmmaker Gareth Edwards and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy chose to excise that particular franchise hallmark to separate the spin-off movies from the main episodes.

Rogue One did, however, include the “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” credit, the yellow opening titles against a darkened starfield, and the blue font end credits. It’s the little things that count, and apparently the one thing to make your Star Wars movie a main episode is that opening crawl to situate everyone in the main storyline.

It’s too bad Johnson didn’t include any text of the actual Last Jedi crawl, but the anticipation to find out what happens after that first shot of the film means its release on December 15 can’t come soon enough.