The Rise of Skywalker Writer Explains Why the Opening Crawl Starts with Palpatine's Big Reveal

The opening crawl is one of the most crucial parts that fans look forward to in Star Wars films since it provides some insight as to what has happened so far and what the fans will expect to unfold in the film. The Rise of Skywalker had a pretty packed crawl and here's why they immediately included a big reveal at the beginning of the movie.

This article contains SPOILERS for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

"The dead speak!" it says. "The galaxy has heard a mysterious broadcast, a threat of REVENGE in the sinister voice of the late EMPEROR PALPATINE." Followed by the crawl is a scene where Kylo Ren is fighting creatures at Mustafar, he then heads to Palpatine's throne room where he immediately found out that Snoke was just a clone made by the Sith Lord.

Speaking to Indie Wire, The Rise of Skywalker writer Chris Terrio details the process to the opening crawl's fruition. "We debated and debated what the crawl would say, and we wanted to have the word ‘revenge' in the crawl, a message of revenge in the voice of the late Galactic Emperor Palpatine," he explained. "We also wanted that line, ‘The dead speak.'"

"You might be able to say ‘kill the past,' and that might be genuinely what Kylo Ren is trying to do in Episode 8 and even at the beginning of Episode 9," Terrio added. "But the past isn't done with him yet." He says Kylo could be mentally done with it, but the literal voice of the past, which is the Emperor, is saying that history has its eye on Kylo. "History remembers what happened, and the Sith should not go quietly into the night," Terrio added.

He also revealed that there were other versions of the crawl, some revealed less information, but some revealed more. "And there was another version for a while," Terrio said. "Then we went back to the crawl of Episode IV and realized that it's a fairly complex situation you're being thrown into." Terrio says it feels like a "Saturday morning serial" because they've stolen the plans to Death Star, which is brand new information in 1977. "We decided that we were going to just go for it and begin with an inciting event, which is that this broadcast has been heard," he said.

Fans weren't able to find out Palpatine's message in the movie, but they eventually found out about the broadcast in Fortnite's Star Wars event.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is now showing.

Also Read: Here's How Rey Brought Balance to the Force