Inside the Making of ‘Star Wars: Skeleton Crew’: Creators Reveal the Show’s Origins and Inspirations

Star Wars is gearing up for its next live-action show, Skeleton Crew, after a successful run with Ahsoka and some controversy with The Acolyte. The first two episodes of Skeleton Crew will premiere on December 2, 2024, with new episodes released weekly.

With The Acolyte stirring mixed reactions, Lucasfilm and Disney are betting on this Goonies-inspired Star Wars pirate adventure to win fans over. Early reports have been divided, with some praising the show while others worry it could face challenges like past projects.

Tomorrow, we’ll finally see if Skeleton Crew lives up to the hype. Fans and creators alike hope it succeeds—not just for Lucasfilm and Disney, but for the Star Wars franchise as a whole, especially with such an exciting premise.

With the premiere just around the corner, TV Line magazine sat down with Jon Watts and Chris Ford, the co-creators of Skeleton Crew. They shared insights about the show’s origins—originally conceived as a movie before Disney+ even existed—and other behind-the-scenes details. The first question focused on how the series came to life:

TVLINE | What was the catalyst for this idea? Who caught their kids mixing up their Indiana Jones and Star Wars action figures?

JON WATTS | I mean, it started as just a simple pitch, which is a group of kids that don’t really know that they’re in the Star Wars galaxy, get lost in the Star Wars galaxy and try to find their way home.

CHRIS FORD | It started with that, and then unpacking what all of the ramifications of that would be, and all the different worlds and things we’d have to create and who they would meet along the way. But we just started with that and let it kind of lead us into the story.

WATTS | And I pitched it a long time ago. I pitched it right after the first Spider-Man [Homecoming] movie. It was initially pitched to Lucasfilm as a film, and then I had to go make two Spider-Man movies, because the first one did all right.

Over time, [Jon] Favreau made The Mandalorian and Disney+ came into existence, so it evolved, as the Spider-Man movies were being made, into a show, and that gave us more time to explore the galaxy and get into this world of piracy and have a little bit more fun with it. And once I finished the third Spider-Man movie [No Way Home], we could finally get to work making it.

Source: TV Line

If you’ve watched the trailer, you can tell that Skeleton Crew isn’t your usual Star Wars show. TV Line took a closer look at that unique angle:

TVLINE | I was skimming the comments on YouTube for the trailer that dropped, and a lot of people are saying, “If you hadn’t told me this was a Star Wars project, I would not have known.” Is that a great thing… or also kind of a not-great thing?

FORD | I think that Star Wars probably has a broader tone than people realize. If you think about just certain key moments or you know, a lightsaber fight, it could be very narrow, but you have to remember that when they walk into the cantina, that’s some people’s favorite moment. There’s an insane jazz combo playing this crazy song, and I think a big part of Star Wars is embracing all of that. It’s a big galaxy to bring them all in.

WATTS | What I like about Star Wars — and Andor did so much with this, which I really loved — is you can take any moment or any character in Star Wars, and because it feels like such a dense, complex, real galaxy, you can follow them home. Like, I’m so curious to know the life of everyone in the cantina band. Where did they come from? How did they meet? Do they play any other gigs? Are they there all the time?

FORD | Are they touring?

TVLINE | Or any random stormtrooper. When he goes home, he’s, what, living in a studio apartment, at best.

WATTS | Yeah, yeah, with, like, those vertical blinds.

TVLINE | He probably has two roommates.

WATTS | Yeah! It’s such a dense, complex world, that I figure you could follow any one of those tangents and come up with an interesting story.

The interview then touched on how the show connects to the overall Star Wars canon. Surprisingly, you don’t need any prior knowledge of Star Wars lore to enjoy this series:

TVLINE | I saw an interview where you said that people “cannot know anything” about Star Wars and enjoy this show. But besides the Jedi mention that we get a couple of episodes in, will there be other little nods, Easter eggs for us to latch onto?

WATTS | Definitely. The main characters don’t really know anything about the Star Wars universe, either, so as a viewer, you don’t have to know anything about Star Wars to be on the journey with the kids. But if you do know a lot about Star Wars, you’re ahead of the kids.

You know more about the galaxy than they do, and that allows you to enjoy the show in a completely different way than someone who doesn’t know anything about it. Our hope is that the people who don’t know anything and those that know everything are watching the show together and having their own unique conversation.

Finally, the influences behind the show were discussed:

TVLINE | I was saying to your young cast that this series is, obviously, inspired by Goonies, E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark — touchstones that are big for me and you two, but not for them. They haven’t necessarily seen those films. Is that sort of a challenge for you, marketing this to a younger audience that maybe hasn’t seen Goonies?

WATTS | I don’t think so, because when we think about it, we were never really consciously referencing those movies, because we didn’t have to. Because those movies are just a part of our DNA. Like, being 10 is going out on an adventure and hoping you’re going to find some pirate treasure or something like that. I think what all that taps into is the feeling of being a kid and the feeling of wanting to go on an adventure.

FORD | Yeah, because all of those ‘80s movies were tapping into that same thing, too, and we’re just trying to go right to that same source, because, you know, we experienced that in our own childhoods — and I think kids are still the same.

WATTS | Hopefully, there’s something more universal at play than just ‘80s nostalgia.

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