Part of the joy of the new Star Wars series Skeleton Crew, available now if you have a Disney+ subscription, is that each new episode takes its main characters (and the audience) to locations never before seen in the Star Wars galaxy. Our main protagonists are trying to get back to their home planet of At Attin – a place we have been told has been purposefully hidden, according to myth. But as they involve a rogue pirate named Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law) in their mission, he detours them to far corners of the galaxy, where we continue to encounter all forms of aliens, creatures, and droids.
And really, shouldn’t that be the point of Star Wars? Any storyteller willing to tackle an upcoming Star Wars show or movie should want to showcase as much bizarre stuff as possible. Because going back to the familiar nostalgia of the original Star Wars movies only works for so long. The galaxy is too big to be left unexplored, and that ingenuity is keeping me invested in Skeleton Crew through half of the season.
When getting the chance to speak to the cast and crew of Skeleton Crew during a recent press day, I asked co-creator Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home) if they had walls filled with sketches of creatures and droids that they wanted to invent for the show. And he informed CinemaBlend:
Oh my God. We just had rooms of those. As you’d write, you’d pitch rough ideas to Doug Chiang and the Lucasfilm design team. And then they would come back with, ‘Here’s 10 versions of that thing that you drew on a napkin.’ Then they’re all amazing. And then they’re like, ‘Here’s some unused designs from this project. Maybe we could combine that.’ You just feel like a kid in a candy store when you’re working with them. Because everything is cool, and you want to put it all in. The hard thing is like having to narrow it down. … We got a lot of aliens, (and) a lot of droids. We just tried to do as much as we could.
Some of these creatures and droids are integral to the plot. Obviously Neel (Robert Timothy Smith) is one of the main kids who form the Skeleton Crew. And when they activated the ship that is taking them on this journey, the awoke SM-33 (the voice of Nick Frost), who has been more hindrance than help… especially as Skeleton Crew Episode 4 drew to a close. Other times, though, the show will just pit stop on a wild new planet, giving Jon Watts and his hired directors (David Lowery, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinart) the chance to populate the landscapes with all manner of strange creatures. Like my favorite, Wolfman Pirate!
Be on the lookout for new episodes of Skeleton Crew, which will arrive weekly until we find out whether or not these kids make it back home!