The original opening for ESB had the crawl as black letters on a white ground, which was then revealed to be the snowy plains of Hoth seen from a bird’s eye view.
In post-production this was revised so that the opening scene of the film took place in space, with Vader’s fleet dispatching probes to look for the Rebels. This kind of accidentally cemented the idea that a SW movie must have its opening crawl take place against a backdrop of stars.
Really? checks youTube really quick
I think I would have liked the original better, but then again, maybe having the opening scene among the stars, better cements the idea that, hey, you’re about to watch a story about STAR Wars.
Honestly yeah, I kinda like the continuity it provides. It’s part of the hype of sitting down and seeing the Lucasfilm logo… then the “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…”, then the starfield and STAR WARS. It would be weird without it.