The Star Wars opening crawl is a signature device of the opening sequences of every numbered film of the Star Wars series, an American epic space opera franchise created by George Lucas. Within a black sky background featuring a smattering of stars, the crawl is preceded both by the opening static blue text, «A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….» and by the Star Wars logo which recedes toward a central point on the screen before disappearing. The crawl text, which describes the backstory and context of the film, then recedes toward a higher point in relation to the screen and with an apparent effect of disappearing in the distance. The visuals are accompanied by the «Main Title Theme«, composed by John Williams.
This sequence has featured at the beginning of each of the main Star Wars saga theatrical films produced by Lucasfilm. Although it has retained the same basic elements, the opening crawl has significantly evolved throughout the series. It is one of the most immediately recognizable elements of the franchise and has been frequently parodied.
The opening crawl was not used in the animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars or in the Star Wars «Anthology» films, Rogue One and Solo, although all three films begin with the opening text. Additionally, the opening sequence of Solo continues with a short backstory presented in the same style as the opening text, while The Clone Wars uses a narrator to provide exposition in a similar style to a newsreel.
Why do Star Wars movies always start with, “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” As George Lucas developed the fourth draft of Star Wars, he read Bruno Bettelheim’s The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, which he claimed began to inform the story and the characters. He said, “I put this little thing on it: A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, an incredible adventure took place. Basically it’s a fairy tale now. Star Wars is built on top of many things that came before. This film is a compilation of all those dreams, using them as history to create a new dream.” So the blue text at the start of every Star Wars film is to remind the audience that we are stepping into a fairy tale set in space.