The Star Wars Skeleton Crew series coming to Disney+ on December 3 will go back in time almost half a century to recreate an element of the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special.
Skeleton Crew co-writer and executive producer Jon Watts told TheHoloFiles that the show not only includes a reference to the 1978 holiday special but actually recreates a specific sequence exactly.
“We thought we would be may be able to use some preexisting footage, but no. It was way too low resolution and it was the wrong angles,” Watts said. “We had to create this moment from multiple angles, because you see it in various parts of the scene. So we rebuilt the whole thing from scratch.
“We had to dig up the original designs of the costumes, which were in the Lucasfilm archive, get all the original specs, we had to redo the music from scratch, because there was no copy of the actual score anywhere, so we had to rebuild that.
“It ended up being 20 times more work than we anticipated, and our stunt coordinator is the main performer in it and he was able to re-choreograph the routine too, because it’s a very acrobatic routine. I will say, without saying what it is, which it is pretty obvious now, it was so much work and it was so worth it. My favorite part.”
This isn’t the only deep cut Star Wars reference in Skeleton Crew, the Jude Law-starring Goonies-esque series. David Lowery, one of the directors leading Skeleton Crew, revealed in October that Teeks from Ewoks: The Battle for Ender also return in the series, perhaps implying Endor will feature too.
Skeleton Crew kicks off with a two-episode premiere on Disney+. It’s been a long time coming, as the show wrapped filming way back in January 2023 and was initially expected out later that year.
Disney went quiet on Skeleton Crew, however, and despite it showing a trailer for the show in April 2023 to attendees of Star Wars Celebration, it was a series of leaks that revealed the most information surrounding the show.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
