Really? I like the Boushh scenes. So the first time you see Boushh/Leia, she’d just be sneaking into Jabba’s palace at night?
I don’t have an issue one way or another with the Boushh scene, but when looking at ways to cut down the Jabba’s palace section, it is the first that comes to mind, as the main thing it establishes (prisoned Chewie) can be explained with 3PO’s line. Yes you do end up with Boushh’s first moment being sneaking around at night, but I’m not sure that’d feel too weird. I guess you also probably have to find a place to sneak in a shot of Lando since that scene has his reveal.
As far removing Luke’s message, i’d probably play around with potential subtitle options for Bib and/or Jabba, depending on how far the droids get. Because I could see them reaching Jabba and him rejecting them there.
Im in my head following the sequence of events, if one was to cut out the droids speaking with Jabba entirely. Then your first scene with him would be the Lapti Nek -> trap door sequence, which one could argue would be a stronger intro to the character. The main thing you’d lose though I guess is the establishment of Han’s carbonate block on the wall. I guess you’d have to insert a full on shot of it during Lapti Nek. I wonder if that works or is too small, but either way you’d probably want to get rid of 3PO’s captain obvious observation exposition.
The problem for me is the movie takes so long to pick up. You have the first scene with Vader, which basically accomplishes nothing. The droids enter Jabba’s palace, which is somewhat interesting, but it’s pretty drawn out and dialogue heavy (first walking to the palace, then outside the door, then in the main hallway, then talking to Jabba, then talking to EV-9D9 in the droid dungeon, etc.). Ideally in my mind you’d want to get rid of at least one of those scenes. Maybe if you want to keep Jabba you could lose the Bib moment or the droid torture (in my head I always thought to get rid of the latter). But the more I think about removing the Jabba scene, the more I like it (and removing the whole “gift” aspect makes the droid torture dungeon more interesting an threatening, in a way, since we don’t know what they’re going to do with them).
Outside of the Jabba stuff, the other idea I have for the opening is in regards to that Vader scene. If it doesn’t accomplish anything, why not star the film with the Emperor’s arrival? Isn’t it sort of redundant to have two arrival scenes anyway? It would start the film off on a more exciting and monumental note.
Rise of Skywalker speculation below
I’m stealing someone’s idea here (don’t remember who), but what if the Emperor’s shuttle had a red stripe instead of a slightly darker grey one? And, if were making his arrival the opening, what if the Star Destroyer he’s coming from also has a red stripe? It’s my understanding that in the TROS teaser, you can faintly see a red stripe on an old Star Destroyer. The speculation being, is this something that is affiliated Palpatine himself, considering his apparent return? If so, this could be a way to tie the trilogies together.