Perhaps no movie’s beginning is as recognizable as that of Star Wars—its yellow text crawling into the great beyond, establishing the state of affairs “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” all set to John Williams’ famous score.
The crawl has been part of every Star Wars movie since. With Star Wars: The Force Awakens debuting on Dec. 18, we decided to bring the sequence to Time.com through a feature designed by interactive graphics editor Chris Wilson. You can now “Star Wars-ify” any article, turning its text into the style of Lucas’s introduction, in our Newsfeed or Entertainment sections.
Try it out by selecting the light sabers in the “Star Wars-ify” icon above. To exit, select the light sabers in the top right-hand corner or hit the escape key.
As it would happen, TIME had its own small role in the credit sequence. In the spring of 1977, George Lucas screened a rough cut of the movie for friends, including Stephen Spielberg, Scarface director Brian De Palma and Time writer Jay Cocks, according to Chris Taylor’s 2015 How Star Wars Conquered the Universe. De Palma was a toughest critic of the film. But he wasn’t totally unhelpful. Together, De Palma and Cocks volunteered to help re-write the introduction. Cocks went on to write screenplays for Gangs of New York and The Age of Innocence among other movies.
More Must-Reads From TIME
- The 100 Most Influential People of 2024
- How Far Trump Would Go
- Scenes From Pro-Palestinian Encampments Across U.S. Universities
- Saving Seconds Is Better Than Hours
- Why Your Breakfast Should Start with a Vegetable
- 6 Compliments That Land Every Time
- Welcome to the Golden Age of Ryan Gosling
- Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time
Contact us at letters@time.com