'Skeleton Crew' Director Talks Putting His Team Together

Star Wars

Oct 19

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is set to hit streaming on December 3. The directors sat down with Empire Magazine to discuss the new series. Jon Watts explained how he and co-creator Christopher Ford chose their team. He said, “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?’”. Jude Law plays force-user Jod Na Nawood. Naturally, the response was overwhelmingly positive, leading to David Lowery, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jake Schreier, and Lee Isaac Chung joining the project as directors.

Lowery had a chuckle at how similar the project was to a project he directed, Peter Pan & Winday. Skeleton Crew features a droid named SM-33, which Lowery immediately connected the character to Captain Hook’s right-hand man, Smee. Law, who played Hook in Lowery’s project, was another connecting thread. Lowery joked that he felt like he just made this when Watts invited him on board.

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Howard and Shreier had known Watts and Ford since college, with Shreier even being roommates with them. Howard previously worked on Season 3 of The Mandalorian, so she’s no stranger to the Star Wars universe. Schreier recalled a pirate radio drama that Ford and Watts used for a sound project in their college days.

Chung, who also worked on The Mandalorian, expected secrecy and was surprised by the immediate concept art. Watts confessed, “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.” Between their histories and the skills developed from various projects, it seems like this crew was made for this project. Skeleton Crew will focus on a group of kids lost in the Star Wars universe trying to return home in a galactic pirate adventure.

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