Spider-Man Director Jon Watts Opens Up About Building His Team of Filmmakers for ‘Skeleton Crew’

Skeleton Crew promises to bring a fresh and exciting perspective to the Star Wars franchise that fans will love. It offers something truly unique for live-action Star Wars enthusiasts, filling a gap that previously could only be explored in books or comics.

The series stars Jude Law as Jod Na Nawood, a mysterious Force user who must guide a group of young characters lost in space. Together, they face the harsh realities of an unforgiving galaxy as they try to find their way home.

In addition to Jude Law’s star power, Skeleton Crew boasts an impressive team behind the scenes. Jon Watts, the showrunner and director of the MCU’s Spider-Man trilogy, has brought together an all-star crew of filmmakers for the project.

In this report, we’ll dive into what some of these key contributors have shared about their experience working on the series.

The details come from a recent Empire interview, where new images from the series were also unveiled. When asked how he brought together such an impressive lineup of directors—including himself, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, David Lowery, Jake Schreier, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Lee Isaac Chung—Jon Watts shared his approach.

Some of the directors also offered their own perspectives on how they became part of the project. Here’s what they had to say:

Jon Watts: Ford and I sat down like, “Who are our favourite directors, who would be good at this?” We went out to all you guys, and you all said yes. No-one turned it down! “Hey, do you want to do Star Wars? Play around in the Volume? Do pre-vis? Meet some pirates, some puppets, hang out with Jude Law?” “Yeah, sounds great!”

David Lowery: Jon pitched it as, “Kids lost in the Star Wars universe. And there’s a bunch of pirates.” I was like, “Cool. I just finished a Peter Pan movie, I’m in the pirate world.”

You were like, “There’s a robot named SM-33.” I said, “Oh, ‘Smee’, that’s very Peter Pan.” And then: “Jude Law is going to star.” I was like, “Oh! I think I just made this?” (Law played Lowery’s Captain Hook.) To do it again in Star Wars was a dream come true.

Bryce Dallas Howard: I’ve known these guys — and Ford — for literally over 20 years. Watts has a playbill from something that I directed in college! My first time encountering ‘Grammar Rodeo’ was with the [Lucasfilm] pre-vis team. I was working on [The Mandalorian] Season 3 at the time. I was like, “How is it?” And they’re like, “It’s so good.”

Jake Schreier: Jon and Ford were my roommates in college, so they probably were like, “I guess we know Jake. He can do one also.” In freshman year at NYU, you had to do a semester of sound work. Jon and Ford’s sound project was a pirate radio drama. They’ve been working at this for a very, very long time.

Lee Isaac Chung: Jon had talked to [Jon] Favreau about the work I did on Mando. On Mandalorian, everything’s so secretive. After I say, “I’d love to do it,” then [Favreau] reveals what we’re doing. But the first conversation with Jon [Watts], he was immediately showing me concept art — I felt like I was looking at stuff I wasn’t supposed to be seeing yet.

Watts wrapped up with this final thought:

Watts: I was probably breaking some NDA. Minari [Chung’s 2020 drama] is so good, and shows such an ability to work with young actors. We were so happy to have you, because we’ve got four ten-year-olds leading our show.

We wanted directors who would be able to show Star Wars from a new perspective, while bringing their own unique storytelling POV. [With Daniels], we all know each other because their longtime DP, Larkin Seiple, shot a lot of things with me and Jake. Everything Everywhere hadn’t come out yet when we got them — I was just a fan of Swiss Army Man, and their crazy commercials and music videos.

Source: Empire

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