Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is now streaming on Disney+. The series shares the story of four kids who go on an unlikely adventure into space. Adventure is something that series creator Jon Watts is quite familiar with. He shared, “As a kid, I grew up in Colorado in the middle of nowhere, and we’d just go for walks out in these fields with nothing around.” While on these adventures, he would imagine even bigger adventures he could be going on that were far beyond his home state. Eventually, Watts and series co-creator Chris Ford would make a galactic adventure for four kids in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.
Recently, StarWars.com shared about various filmmakers and how they brought the episodes and full story of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew to life. Read about this below!
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR STAR WARS: SKELETON CREW
(L-R) Kyriana Kratter, Ryan Kiera Armstrong and Jon Watts on the set of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.
Jon Watts initially pitched the show while filming Spider-Man: No Way Home. “I was shooting with Jon Favreau. We were just talking and I gave him the very, very quick pitch,” Watts says. “And he was like “Would you want me to produce it? Is that cool? It would be me and Dave Filoni.” And I was like, ‘Yes, Jon Favreau, that would be great.’”
Watts and Chris Ford went on to pitch the show’s concept and story to directors that they had in mind to help bring the pirate-filled, New Republic era story to life. “We wanted the Daniels [Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert] and we wanted Lee Isaac Chung,” Watts says.
“When we hired them, that was before Everything Everywhere All At Once came out,” Ford says of the choice to bring on the Daniels. “And we knew they would be awesome, just their whole aesthetic is so original and amazing.”
The story that Watts and Ford were looking to bring to life in the Star Wars universe was unique — following four kids as they got lost in space. “Based on what the concept of the story was going to be, we knew they had to start on a more safe planet,” Ford shares. “It was an opportunity to design a new thing.”
And while they designed something brand new in the world of At Attin, Watts, Ford, and many of the other directors pulled inspiration from the familiar Amblin Entertainment films such as The Goonies and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial when it came to shaping their episodes. “There’s a really interesting tonal balance. The thing that made those Amblin movies have that spirit was something that Kathleen Kennedy would talk about,” Watts shares. “She would say they were grown-up films that just happened to star kids.”
“You’re combining that childlike sense of wonder with a real dangerous world and a Star Wars show that can sit next to all the other things in the Star Wars environment.”
(L-R) Jude Law and David Lowery on the set of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.
David Lowery has a long history with the Star Wars galaxy, having been a fan since childhood. “My relationship with Star Wars is boring and predictable in that it’s the entire reason I do what I do,” Lowery says.
Work for Lowery’s two episodes of Skeleton Crew involved filming scenes aboard the Onyx Cinder, the ship that Wim and friends stumble upon in the premiere episode. “It was a joy to shoot on. I always was like, this feels like home to me, but it’s definitely a Star Wars ship. It’s a ship that has seen a lot and been through a lot and you can see that in the design of it,” Lowery notes. “But it’s also a ship that has a fair amount of surprises in it. When we first are introduced to it, it’s big and covered in rust and roots, and over the course of the series it’s gonna reveal itself to be a little bit more than what we expect it to be.”
The Onyx Cinder’s practical set was an intrinsic part to making shooting both fun and detailed. “I think one of my favorite things about Star Wars is its tangibility. It feels like a world I understand,” Lowery shares. “There were many times when we’re shooting on these ships and they’re flying somewhere, entering coordinates, and it’s just like hit whatever button feels right. None of it really matters. But…that sense of tangibility, that sense of everything seeming to have a very specific purpose adds so much to how, not only the audience, but the actors and I, as the director, buy into what it is that we’re telling.”
(L-R) Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan on the set of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as the Daniels, were excited to tackle their first Star Wars project with Skeleton Crew — after being asked to join the project by Jon Watts. “One of the appealing things right from the get go was that they told us our episode was a standalone where the kids show up on a planet they’ve never been to,” Scheinert says. “And they leave that planet at the end. So it’d kind of be our homework to figure out an approach to that.”
And while the Daniels are admittedly used to working on their own projects outside of existing franchises like Star Wars, they got right to work with the cast and crew bringing their episode to life — finding themselves with a lot of collaboration, an inviting set, and a cast with developed chemistry. “We showed up and it was like we were in the middle of summer camp,” Scheinert adds. “They had already had adventures, back stories, inside jokes, and secret handshakes.”
“Lots of nicknames,” Kwan says. “Everyone on the crew has a nickname from the kids. And we were the Donuts.”
The Daniels also found that stepping into the Star Wars galaxy brought them into contact with a magnetic crew — some of whom had even worked on the original trilogy. “One of the greatest things about working on this show is actually just working with this crew. Everyone here is so talented and has such a wealth of experience that I felt like we were learning new things every day,” Kwan says. “As a director, that’s all I really want out of every job. I wanna have fun, make something I’m proud of, and learn things along the way.”
(L-R) Brutus and Jake Schreier on the set of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.
Working on Skeleton Crew was a reunion of sorts for Jake Schreier, who was college roommates with show co-creators Jon Watts and Chris Ford. “I’m here again with my college roommates and so it’s strange! We were making very, very cheap movies in Brooklyn on the street once a week and putting them on the early version of YouTube,” Schreier says. “So to be hanging out with them again and working on this scale, there’s something very fun and disorienting about that.”
For Schreier’s episode, he picks up the continuous thread that’s found throughout Skeleton Crew of a view of the Star Wars galaxy through a kid’s eyes. “My episode is crazy. The kids are just trying to find these coordinates and they’ve got this clunky old pirate robot [SM-33] to help them do it,” Schreier says. “And he remembers where the coordinates are on this old pirate lair.” But the kids are in for a surprise upon their arrival.
“This a world really not set up for them, even though it isn’t initially that scary,” Schreier says of the planet Lanupa featured in his episode. “It still is an adult world and one that they don’t feel comfortable navigating.”
With a lot of moving parts in his episode, Schreier approached it knowing that he’d need to balance many different elements carefully. “We got a big episode. It’s action packed and filled with a lot of things,” Schreier says. “Just trying to manage all of that while tracking emotions with the kids and making sure that it doesn’t get swallowed up by the technical side. With all of these elements, you have to sort of break it down into pieces and I think that’s been the most interesting to work through.”
(L-R) Bryce Dallas Howard and Jude Law on the set of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.
Film sets have been a staple in Bryce Dallas Howard’s life from a very young age when she would spend time on sets with her father, leading to her eventually becoming an actor herself. But in recent years, she’s taken up the mantle of director and has directed episodes for both The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett— so she’s no stranger to Star Wars.
When it came to directing her episode of Skeleton Crew, she went in feeling the connective tissue between the shows she’s worked on so far for a galaxy far, far away and an investment in characters as a director. “I’m very in the character’s head,” she tells StarWars.com. “I care about it. And that ends up being sort of the emotional landscape of a character.”
That love for getting into characters’ heads is on full display in how Howard approached her episode. “I loved getting to do this episode because it is very much the characters’ rock bottom moment,” Howard says. “One [element that was very exciting] was the notion of a breakup in female friendship. That’s very specific. I’ve experienced it. Most people have experienced it. And I really enjoyed getting to work with Ryan Kiera Armstrong (Fern) and Kyriana Kratter (KB) to breathe life into that scene because it’s layered. Getting to unpack that a little bit was really fun.”
Howard also pointed to a key moment that Jude Law’s character, Jod, had in the episode as a highlight. “Jude Law gives an incredible speech in this episode, and it was such a joy to film that,” Howard shares. “Doing that scene, we just wanted to have fun and play, and most of all, get all of the actors involved. That speech isn’t just about Jod giving a speech. It’s about the pirates in the room and him needing to change his fate, to convince the crowd to change their minds.”
(L-R) Lee Isaac Chung, Kyriana Kratter, Ravi Cabot-Conyers, and Ryan Kiera Armstrong on the set of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.
Lee Isaac Chung, who’s previously directed an episode of The Mandalorian and films like Minari and Twisters, was excited to return to Star Wars. “I thought it sounded like a phenomenal idea, it sounded like a lot of fun, to be honest,” Chung says of hearing the pitch. “So I immediately said ‘I’m in.’ I’ll do an episode. I was just very honored that Jon [Watts] would ask me.”
Owning the directing on the penultimate chapter of Skeleton Crew prompted Chung to collaborate with the other directors and creatives on the show to bring together a cohesive storyline as they filmed. “With all the directors on the show, we’re all trying to make sure that we set each other up to succeed,” Chung says. “And ultimately, for the sake of the show itself, we want to make something that’s really good.” There was almost a sense of tag team work going on while directing — with Chung and others, like Jon Watts, passing the baton back and forth.
And when Chung had the baton, he pulled inspiration both from Star Wars itself and films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind. “There’s a moment in episode 7 where Jod’s spaceship is landing on At Attin and people on At Attin hadn’t seen this spaceship in many years,” Chung says. “And so I looked at that film and the way that [Steven] Spielberg would film the alien ship arrival.”
One day of filming in particular stands out to Chung — the final day of shooting episode 7 before breaking for Christmas. The main cast, including stars Ravi Cabot-Conyers (Wim) and Robert Timothy Smith (Neel) wanted to surprise Jude Law for his birthday. “We pretended that something went wrong so we were gonna do one more take,” Chung shares. “And then as the take was progressing, Ravi just turned and said ‘Happy Birthday’ to Jude. Music started going and people started dancing.”
The unforgettable moment was a reminder to Chung of the magic of Star Wars storytelling and its ability to bring people together. “I thought you know, that’s kind of what made this show special for me. We’re doing serious work, but at the same time we’re having a lot of fun.”
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