A whole galaxy of potential, and yet we’ve actually explored so little of it on the screen… to date. For the most part, the live-action Star Wars series on Disney+ have tended to laser in on fan-favourite characters or standout moments of series lore instead of presenting something wholly new.
That changes with eight-part space adventure Skeleton Crew, which shifts the focus to four ordinary kids who find themselves lost far from their home planet, and entangled in a mystery involving a legendary pirate treasure. Drawing inspiration from 80s coming-of-age movies like The Goonies, Skeleton Crew – which sees Jude Law play an Errol Flynn-esque ally for our young heroes – is refreshingly different, inviting in both Star Wars devotees and newcomers of all ages.
In a roundtable interview with series creators and showrunners Chris Ford and Jon Watts (who previously collaborated on Cop Car and Spider-Man: Homecoming), we learned how Skeleton Crew’s “perspective change” on the Star Wars universe came about.
This interview was made possible by Disney+ and their South African PR team.
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew premiered on Disney+ on Tuesday, 2 December, with weekly episode drops.
Was it intentional from the start to create something that feels a bit different to the other Star Wars live-action series?
Chris Ford and Jon Watts: Strangely, it was kind of baked into the premise. We knew we wanted to tell a story about a group of kids, and when you start telling it through their eyes and you shift the perspective, it allows you to look at the whole Star Wars galaxy in a completely different way.
Just that perspective change really makes a huge difference, and allows you to tell a new story in the world that we already know and love.
We mean, it’s a big adventure for these kids, but they’re not going to a giant battle or the middle of Coruscant. They’re still in out-of-the-way little corners (of the galaxy). We won’t spoil anything but that’s the feeling we wanted to keep alive, and that we’re kind of exploring: previously overlooked little nooks and crannies.
Do you need to have seen anything else Star Wars before watching Skeleton Crew?
Chris Ford and Jon Watts: This whole show is anti-homework, because the kids that are the main characters don’t really know very much about Star Wars at all. So no, you don’t have to know anything either to be able to enjoy the show.
We were just focused on telling the story and then we realized that it had that aspect to it and that, yeah, you could know nothing and just kind of be with the kids that this is all a big mystery to.
Or, if you know lots about Star Wars, it functions on a different level where you’re kind of ahead of the kids. And it adds to the tension because if they’re interpreting something wrong or making a big mistake, yeah, you know it. But it’s not just Easter eggs. There’s a way that you experience the show differently if you know what’s really happening in the galaxy.
How did you approach striking that balance between speaking to newcomers and long-time fans?
Chris Ford and Jon Watts: We really let the story of these kids be the spine. It was the goal to make a great story that was just fun and thrilling, as all the mysteries come through; something that worked on its own terms. You don’t want a Star Wars story to have to rely on the fact that it’s Star Wars to be good.
But because we knew the world so well, we were excited to be able to fit in references that are there so that the world is consistent with Star Wars, along with ones that are just there kind of for fun as Easter eggs to enrich things.
There’s something for everyone, because we love shows and cinema and storytelling. But we also love Star Wars. So it works; it should work on all levels.
What was your first contact with the Star Wars universe? Were you fans of the films or introduced through other media like toys and games?
Chris Ford: I grew up with Star Wars. I don’t remember when I first saw it, but I have solid memories of watching it at home and on VH S.
Jon Watts: He also grew up in Northern California, like right next to Skywalker Ranch. So he was literally right over the hill from George Lucas. Star Wars was in your backyard.
Chris Ford: Well, yeah, it was so close yet and yet, somehow, so far away.
Jon Watts: I didn’t have a Star Wars family like that at all. I didn’t have Star Wars toys. I started really getting into Star Wars when I was playing X-Wing and Tie Fighter on my PC. And then the special edition (movies) came out in 1997 and I was like, “Wow, I’m in.”
How did the idea of making an Amblin Entertainment type of TV show come about? Was that the intention from the beginning?
Chris Ford and Jon Watts: We were never consciously thinking, “Oh, let’s make this be like Amblin.” But what’s really amazing about the Amblin films, and a lot of the films from that time period, is that they weren’t afraid to let kids be the protagonists. And they didn’t talk down to the kids and they weren’t afraid to put the kids in real danger.
We knew we wanted to do something similar and we grew up with those films. It’s just in your DNA when you’re trying to tell an authentic story about a group of kids, you know, you go back to the best films.
There are those of us who remember the Ewok movies with their kid leads, but as Skeleton Crew is quite a bit different from other current Star Wars productions, was a hard sell at a concept or pitch level?
Chris Ford and Jon Watts: We always really believed in it and it’s nice that you’re pitching to one of the people responsible for all of those Amblin films. Kathy Kennedy (president of Lucasfilm) knows how those films were made. She made those films.
So I don’t think we were ever really afraid. We were just, you know, we like the idea of changing the perspective without changing the world. And it was such an exciting time because there wasn’t just one Star Wars film series going on. Because more was being made, it was kind of expected that you would want it to be a little bit different from Ahsoka and all of that. All of those tones can exist.
At what part of the process did Jude Law even come up in the discussions? And how did you get him?
Chris Ford and Jon Watts: We had always talked about a Jude Law-like character named Jod. That’s probably why we thought of that name. We just couldn’t believe it, like when we reached out to him and no one had asked him to be in Star Wars yet. We were the first ones to ask. And it turns out he’s a huge, huge Star Wars fan. We gave him a little bit of a background on the project and his character and he was all in.
You’ve got some incredible directors working on this series (like Daniels, David Lowery and Bryce Dallas Howard). Can you tease what each brings to their respective episodes; what can people expect?
David Lowery is a funny one to talk about because he had just come from making a pirate movie with kids (Peter & Wendy) starring Jude Law, so he’s like a Pirate Pro and Jude Law Whisper.
And then the Daniels bring their inventive “Danielsness” and a crazy cinematic world.
Jake Schreier, we’ve known forever. He’s an old friend. We don’t want to compliment him, but he’s great. Jake was able to bring a very dry sensibility to his episode, which has a mix of comedy and drama.
Bryce Dallas Howard’s episode has some more kind of dramatic stuff for the kids, and she was so good about creating an extra layer of space for them to work and to be emotionally vulnerable. And she’s already comfortable in the world of Star Wars having directed multiple episodes before.
Isaac Chung, we still can’t believe we got him. He also has the experience in the Star Wars world, but there’s also his ability to work with kids and bring out these amazing performances, and really balance the drama, and tone, which is tricky.
Jon Watts, what’s he like? What’s it like working with him?
[Chris Ford whispers] It’s a nightmare.
Skeleton Crew is inspired by classic coming-of-age adventure movies like The Goonies and ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, but are there any other influences here that’ll surprise viewers?
Chris Ford and Jon Watts: One thing that was brought up recently was Empire of the Sun, which we actually thought a lot about. That doesn’t really count as Amblin, but it’s like this kid going through a crazy time and he’s in way over his head; lost in a very lawless and dangerous place. And it’s shot so dynamically and cinematically. We listened to that music a lot when we were writing it.
What else? There’s sure to be so many things that are just totally subconscious. Then someone will point out them out and like, “Oh, yeah, duh, obviously.” We just try to not be so self-aware when we’re writing. Guess we’ll find out later.
Time to lift the curtain on a mystery: How do you come up with a good Star Wars name?
Chris Ford and Jon Watts: It’s funny. We worked just really instinctively and now that it’s out and we get asked about it, we realize there are these seemingly really obvious parallels or touchstones that we didn’t intend.
Like Jod, or the planet is called At Attin, and people were asking us if it was a reference to the AT-AT. But it’s not on purpose; in the end it just felt right. It felt like Star Wars to us. It’s an art, not a science.
It’s fun, though, because you end up going deep in the thesaurus or, or delving into different languages and just finding words that mean things and twisting them around and changing a few letters. And sometimes it’s going into the Wookiepedia and finding planets and things like that already in the books.
A lot of people have thought of a lot of Star Wars names over many, many years. So you just want to feel like it could stand alongside those.
Do you have any ideas where Skeleton Crew could lead in future?
Chris Ford and Jon Watts: Definitely we wanted to make sure that this season had a very clear sort of beginning and middle and end, so that it felt satisfying. But yeah, we have ideas for what could happen in the future.
We’re excited to see the sort of repercussions of what happens in this season and how that sort of echoes out into the larger galaxy, like if that can affect other series that we’re not even writing. But yeah, we’d would love to see the kids grow up in the Star Wars galaxy and see who they become.
