Skeleton Crew’s Jon Watts and Christopher Ford on transitioning from Spider-Man to Star Wars
I’d love to have witnessed the moment the proverbial lightbulb illuminated as writers Jon Watts and Christopher Ford settled upon the idea of creating a coming-of-age story set within the Star Wars universe. This is a franchise that centres around nostalgia. After all, this vast galaxy is essentially creator George Lucas’ childhood sessions of make believe brought to life. And then, of course, many of us have grown up alongside this series, only compounding those feelings of familiarity and cosyness. Perhaps you can then see why a coming-of-age Star Wars story feels like a match made in heaven.
And what a delight the end product, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, is with those opening three episodes taking us on a heartwarming adventure, reminiscent of Steven Spielberg’s 1980s Amblin Entertainment masterpieces. Skeleton Crew follows four children - Fern, KB, Wim, and Neel - who end up far from home (no Spider-Man pun intended) after the discovery of an abandoned starship results in an accidental autocruise through space. Thankfully, the mysterious Jod Na Nawood strikes a deal with the group, promising to help them find a way back but Jod’s true intentions remain a mystery - and the group has the pirate world hot on their heels.
To hop back to my opening statement, I wasn’t in the room when Watts and Ford originated the idea for this show - with Watts also serving as director on several episodes - but I did recently have the opportunity to sit down with the writing duo to relive it.
See the full interview below, where we also spoke to Skeleton Crew’s Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Kyriana Kratter, Robert Timothy Smith, and Jude Law.
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It turns out, it wasn’t as simple as a lightbulb moment when it comes to Skeleton Crew’s origins.
“I wish we were smart enough to say that we thought of it that way,” Watts revealed. “It started as just a very sort of simple story idea. We liked the idea of a group of kids that don't really know that much about the Star Wars galaxy getting lost in the Star Wars galaxy and then having to find their way home. And then when you start telling a coming-of-age story like that, that takes kids seriously and puts them in real danger, it's hard to avoid the feeling of those 80s movies, because that's sort of what we grew up watching.”
Thankfully for the writing duo, venturing into the world of Star Wars themselves wasn’t too daunting, having brought over their experience from working together on the MCU’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. “You get more comfortable being in the middle of a huge operation. That's what I would say. Just knowing that literally thousands of people are working for you at any given moment,” Watts said of the relative familiarity.
“But it was a different process,” he added. “Because when you're doing Spider-Man, that's a character that people already know. People know Peter Parker. People have seen movies about Peter Parker, but this was a world that people already knew, with new characters that we had created, so that was its own brand-new sort of creative challenge for us.”
What the duo did know how to nail was the balance of creating something that stands on its own two feet while slotting into a larger and wider cinematic canon.
“We wanted it to be standalone,” Ford explained. “We wanted the story to just be a great story, and that was where most of our efforts went into - and then the fun of it was finding all of those Star Wars pieces that would make it connect to the rest of the galaxy.”
“It has to work as a story on its own first. You can't rely on the intellectual property,” Watts concurred.
It’s clearly an intellectual property that Watts and Ford understood well as fans. Skeleton Crew honours Star Wars’ rich heritage and DNA, with sets and practical effects that harken back to those in Lucas' original film trilogy. As impressive as The Mandalorian’s ‘The Volume’ is as a technological advancement when it comes to production, practicality on a set shines through on screen, creating an environment that is equal parts immersive and visually rich.
It isn’t simply the viewer who benefits from such a way of working. “You have a group of kids, so you want to feel like they're really experiencing this stuff for the first time,” Watts said. “Which they were, they were actually talking to a puppeteer droid or a giant animatronic alien, you know, so it makes it that much more immersive for them.”
“And also, just selfishly for us,” he joked. Listen, if I was heading up a Star Wars project, I too would throw the kitchen sink at the sets.
“It was really fun to build stuff, to have models, and use stop motion, and the super talented puppeteers,” Ford agreed. “Everyone that's involved in [Skeleton Crew], was great to have around.”
Watts and Ford weren’t the only two adults on set dazzled, with Jod Na Nawood actor Jude Law experiencing his own pinch-me moment after coming face-to-face with a couple of on-set Jawas, the duo revealed to me. You can’t even begin to imagine what the younger cast members must’ve thought. I have to say, they’re a real asset to the show, with each of the main foursome bringing depth and interest to their respective character. Each has their own role. Fern is the natural leader, Neel the comedic relief, while KB is the logical one, with Wim embodying the true joy of childhood.
Having met the young stars, I can see quite clearly that there’s a fragment of each of them within their characters so I was keen to find out whether this was a collaborative process with Watts and Ford or simply impeccable casting.
“We wanted to cast kids that weren't just great actors, because there's a lot of great kid actors,” Watts began. “We wanted to cast kids that really embodied the spirit of the characters, and then once we had cast them, we went back into all the scripts and sort of rewrote them even more in line with the actual kids so that they could bring as much of themselves to the role as possible.”
This led me into switching the conversation to wider discussions of childhood because this is really the first time that we’ve seen youth explored in the Star Wars universe - outside of the select few who are force-sensitive. The show’s base location, Att Attin, has a unique way of living which viewers will soon discover, but I was eager to learn of the freedom that came with having no rulebook in this realm.
“It’s very particular to Att Attin, and there's a big galaxy so, you know, some kids might be growing up like Rey, being scavengers or something,” Ford explained. “But these kids are lucky enough to have three square meals a day and get to go to school. They think it's boring. They don't want to do their homework. And that [mundanity] is part of the theme that the show explores.” Fair to say, we’ve all dreamt of embarking on a grand adventure.
One aspect of Star Wars’ filmmaking that’s always intrigued me is the naming of droids. Listen, this may sound silly but here me out. Droids are named using a simple combination of letters and numbers but if I said ‘F5-G1’, it doesn’t really sound all that cool or memorable. R2-DR though, or BB-8 or BD-1, those do sound cool. The latest droid to join the fray is Skeleton Crew’s SM-33 so I had to ask Watts and Ford what the secret to naming a Star Wars droid was. How do you know when you’ve landed on the winning formula?
The duo chuckled. “That's part of George Lucas's brilliance, that he came up with those droid names,” Ford began. “You could spell them out like words. If you can write it out phonetically or if it sounds like words in a new language, as opposed to just being letters and numbers, yeah, [that’s it].”
“And if you can remember it the next day,” Watts added.
In continuing Lucas’ legacy, Watts and Ford had the help of modern Star Wars extraordinaire Dave Filoni who also serves as an executive producer on the show - someone who proved to be an exceptionally helpful resource.
“Not only is he like an encyclopedia, but because he worked with George Lucas so closely, he really helped us not just try to make things that felt Star Wars, but he helped us copy the process that George Lucas took when he was coming up with the original trilogy,” Watts said. “That was really foundational for us in terms of how we approached the show creatively.”
“And then, you know, if we're going to reference a planet, and we want to make sure, ‘Is it Scipio or Scipio?’ [varying pronunciations], it's a quick, ‘Go and ask Dave before we have to shoot’,” Ford added - and no, I don’t know whether Scipio is a tease or a random example. I suppose we’ll have to stay tuned on that one.
What I can say is that the duo assured me that Skeleton Crew is packed with Easter eggs. Already, it’s been spotted that Jod’s pirate moniker, Crimson Jack, is a nod to a Star Wars comic.
“You don't have to know anything about Star Wars to enjoy the show, but if you do know a lot about Star Wars, there's a lot in there for you,” Watts confirmed.
“Especially around Jude's character,” Ford added. “We wanted his character to feel like it was drawn from that rich past of comics and, yeah, role playing games. Jude's somewhat been in Star Wars for a long time [as a fan]. This is just the first time we've put him in a show.”
And it is perhaps apt that we landed on talking about Jude because Jod is a fascinating character, a true chameleon whose intentions - in those early episodes - are a complete and utter mystery. I’d previously spoken to Jude Law himself about the process of planting seeds that hint towards what makes up the real Jod, with the actor adding that whilst he had great fun planning such things, it was done so in coordination with Watt’s and Ford’s fantastic scripts. Naturally, I had to ask the duo about the trail of breadcrumbs they’ve laid out when it comes to Jod.
“It's a screenwriting trick to work backwards,” Ford explained. “And what's amazing is that we went so into the backstory with Jude, and he came up with so many aspects of it. He was a collaborator in creating that character, and there's things that we learned about him in the end that he completely, yeah, [came up with].”
“We created a mystery and then he really fleshed out and gave it a level of depth and complexity that was even beyond what we were actually [expecting],” Watts agreed. “It actually blew my mind.”
Jod is far from being the only standout character. Amongst the young foursome is a blue elephant-esque fella known by the name of Neel - and no, he’s not an Ortolan like Max Rebo. But what I am certain of is that he’s going to prove a hit with viewers. I was curious to learn whether Watts and Ford suspected that Neel might emulate a certain level of Grogu-style popularity.
“What’s crazy though is that now that we've gotten to know Dave [Filoni] and Jon [Favreau], they were nervous about Grogu themselves. Like, ‘Are people gonna like this or not?’” Ford revealed. “With Neel, we just, we had a vision. We really wanted to have this sweet little blue alien boy be a best friend, and we weren't sure whether we would actually be able to do it, because it was going to be a big special effects puzzle to solve.”
“Our feeling is just like a huge relief that Neel worked,” Watts added.
As for whether the duo is nervous about the show’s premiere - and they needn’t be - they had this to say.
“You always get nervous when you make something that is new,” Watts said. “But I think what we did really was just change the perspective, because it is still the same Star Wars galaxy that we already know and that everyone loves, you know. We’re just telling the story through a different viewpoint. Hopefully, that's the thing that makes it feel fresh.”
Experience the story for yourself as Star Wars: Skeleton Crew launches on 2 December at 6pm PT with the first two episodes, exclusively on Disney Plus. UK viewers can tune in from 2am GMT on 3 December.
Topics: Star Wars, Disney, TV And Film, Interview