‘Star Wars: Skeleton Crew’ Utilizes Every Tool from The Volume to a Stop-Motion Creature
“Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” (now streaming on Disney+) is like “Goonies” in space, with four kids discovering a deserted Starship on their suburban home planet post “Return of the Jedi” and going on a pirate adventure with a mysterious Force-user played by Jude Law.
The eight-episode Lucasfilm series was created by director Jon Watts (“Spider-Man: No Way Home”) and writing partner Christopher Ford, who channeled their inner child to play in the “Star Wars” universe, coaxing an all-star lineup of directors to do the same: David Lowery (“An Almost Christmas Story”), the Daniels (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”), Bryce Dallas Howard (“The Mandalorian”), Lee Isaac Chung (“Twisters”), and Jake Schreier (Marvel’s “Thunderbolts”).
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“It’s exactly what I wanted to happen to me as a kid,” Watts told IndieWire. “I grew up in the middle of nowhere and, for fun, we would go walk in a field in a straight line just hoping that we’re going to stumble across a pirate treasure or get abducted by aliens. So, to be able to go back to that feeling and try to channel that into the show has been fun for me.”
It was much the same for Ford, who grew up in the background of Lucasfilm in Marin County and watched all the Amblin movies along with the “Star Wars” franchise. “That was just part of our imagination,” he told IndieWire,” so it’s almost like we’re hearkening back to ourselves as fans of those movies.”
For the four kids, it’s their first exposure to the “Star Wars” universe after hearing about the lore and playing with the toys. There’s Ravi Cabot-Conyers as Wim, Kyriana Kratter as KB, Robert Timothy Smith as the elephant-like Neel (but not the same species as Max Rebo from “Return of the Jedi”), and Ryan Kiera Armstrong as cyborg Fern.
“It’s a really good point of view, I think, from a storytelling perspective, to be able to see this world, that we know, for the first time through their eyes,” added Watts. “We think of Wim being the dreamer, just looking for adventure but not thinking things through; his friend Neel is the risk-averse one and a little bit more shy; and the girls are a little older, more mature, and they’re formidable: Fern is like a natural born leader, and KB is extremely intelligent and tech-savvy.”
Speaking of tech-savvy, Watts wanted to embrace both high and low tech, from The Volume to puppetry to stop-motion to models to a matte painting (under the VFX supervision of John Knoll, executive creative director of Lucasfilm). The Volume, which keeps improving with each new iteration at ILM, was utilized early on for hyperspace, a bustling pirate port, and a dark moon.
“The thing I came to realize pretty quickly is that it’s just another tool to put in your toolbox,” Watts said. “But what’s so cool is that the best part of it feels just like an old-fashioned background painting. And I liked The Volume because it forces you to make all the choices ahead of time. It’s a bit of a magic trick where you have to figure out ways to hide the seam. My favorite use is when they’re in that little dinghy. We built the whole environment and rigged it up so the kids and Jude could sit in the dinghy and literally pilot their way through space.”
The best of the puppets, meanwhile, was SM 33 (voiced by Nick Frost), a decrepit old droid first mate on their ship, the Onyx Cinder. He was inspired by Bunraku puppet theater. “He’s completely real and practical, attached to a guy, with bars coming off of a puppeteer and then that droid,” added Ford. “We pre-recorded the audio and triggered a Nick Frost line on set, so all the expressions you see from the kids and Jude were like having a real guy on set.”
Lowery, who directs Episodes 2 and 3, got to work with a Teek hand-puppet that’s a favorite of his from “Ewoks: Battle for Endor.” “He’s a Teek that’s had a hard life, living on a pirate port for a while,” Watts explained. “And it’s fun because the puppeteers are such artists, making something so alive. And then, ironically, the thing that makes it special is erasing the puppeteer from the shot. Leaving what was really there practically just makes it feel so much more real. It just made David so happy.”
Stop-motion vet Phil Tippett (“Mad God”) was also invited to make a Ray Harryhausen-like alien creature. “That blew my mind,” Watts said. “That was one of those things where we were completely encouraged to follow all of those crazy, old-school, expensive impulses. I think it’s because the creature was so good for the stop-motion technology and felt right.”
Watts even got permission to slip in a matte painting of some planets, and Knoll phoned a retired ILM matte painter to come and do the work. “It almost became a bucket list of every old-school VFX technique,” added Watts. “We did a lot of physical models, and the one for the kids’ ship had amazing detail with moving engines. John built his own from-scratch motion control rig. There were people working in their garages because that’s where these things happen now.
“The only thing that I was discouraged from doing was an actual optical effect,” Watts said. “John said, ‘No, you don’t want to get the optical printers out again. Let’s do the compositing on a computer.'”
The first two episodes of “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” are now streaming on Disney+. New episodes premiere Tuesdays through the January 14 finale.
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