No, it didn’t because at the time Lucas didn’t expect to make more movies. He did have the basics for a larger story on his head, but the first movie was made as a standalone, telling the middle part of a larger story. If i remember correctly, when the first movie was being made, Lucas hadn’t even decided that Vader would be Luke’s father. He thought of that after the movie’s success and when it became clear it would become a series.
Edit: To finish the story - the title credits for the first movie were added later, after the original release, when it was clear that more movies would come out and that each one would need its own title. But before all of that, the first movie was simply titled “Star Wars”
As I remember it, the original title crawl did indeed say “Episode IV A NEW HOPE.” This was despite it being the first movie made – to give it the feeling of starting in the middle of a larger drama.
When you went outside the Marquee said Star Wars. The VHS says Star Wars. But the movie calls itself STAR WARS Episode IV A NEW HOPE.
Is this splitting hairs? Yes.
EDIT. I was wrong. In 1977 there was no subtitle in the crawl because of FOX. In 1981, there was.
The opening crawl in the first Star Wars film is very different from Lucas’s original intention. The original text, used in the rough cut he showed to friends and studio executives in February 1977, appears in the Marvel Comics adaptation of the film. When originally released in May 1977, the first film was simply titled Star Wars, as 20th Century Fox forbade Lucas to use a subtitle on grounds that it could be confusing, since there had been no other Star Wars movies prior to 1977.[2][10] In addition, it was not certain if the film would be followed with a sequel. When The Empire Strikes Back was released in 1980, the episode number, “Episode V”, and subtitle “THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK” appeared as the first two lines of the opening crawl.^[citation needed]^ To match its sequel’s crawl, the episode number “Episode IV” and subtitle “A NEW HOPE” were added for the film’s theatrical re-release in April 1981.
Fox and now Disney made such a good job of erasing it from memory that it has been almost forgotten. But here in this video you can still see how it was back in 1977. Also, other very subtle stylistic choices on font, crawl movement, etc. that were changed for the re-releases. Modern streaming versions are also different from the ones originally on theaters.
Also, don’t you mean before that, titled “The Star Wars”? (I honestly don’t know, but didn’t someone earlier say the original had “the” in the title?) (Edit oh yeah there is a comment saying that but it’s another thread on this same post, dk about the veracity)
No, it didn’t because at the time Lucas didn’t expect to make more movies. He did have the basics for a larger story on his head, but the first movie was made as a standalone, telling the middle part of a larger story. If i remember correctly, when the first movie was being made, Lucas hadn’t even decided that Vader would be Luke’s father. He thought of that after the movie’s success and when it became clear it would become a series.
Edit: To finish the story - the title credits for the first movie were added later, after the original release, when it was clear that more movies would come out and that each one would need its own title. But before all of that, the first movie was simply titled “Star Wars”
As I remember it, the original title crawl did indeed say “Episode IV A NEW HOPE.” This was despite it being the first movie made – to give it the feeling of starting in the middle of a larger drama.
When you went outside the Marquee said Star Wars. The VHS says Star Wars. But the movie calls itself STAR WARS Episode IV A NEW HOPE.
Is this splitting hairs? Yes.
EDIT. I was wrong. In 1977 there was no subtitle in the crawl because of FOX. In 1981, there was.
Fox and now Disney made such a good job of erasing it from memory that it has been almost forgotten. But here in this video you can still see how it was back in 1977. Also, other very subtle stylistic choices on font, crawl movement, etc. that were changed for the re-releases. Modern streaming versions are also different from the ones originally on theaters.
Interesting, it really does start you right in media res.
Also Luke was “Starkiller” for most of the length of the development of the movie.
The scene where Luke rescues Leia from the jail, they filmed it with him being called “Luke Starkiller”. Here’s Mark Hamill himself telling the story.
https://youtube.com/shorts/w3pvz7rM48Y
Also, don’t you mean before that, titled “The Star Wars”? (I honestly don’t know, but didn’t someone earlier say the original had “the” in the title?) (Edit oh yeah there is a comment saying that but it’s another thread on this same post, dk about the veracity)