This article contains minor spoilers for Star Wars: Skeleton CrewStar Wars: Skeleton Crewis officially breaking all the franchise’s rules, and that’s one major reason the show is so good. Lucasfilm’sStar WarsTV show is unlike anything we’ve seen before. It’s the perfect Christmas fare, the story of a group of kids from an Earth-like planet who wind up stranded in theStar Warsgalaxy.
Skeleton Crew’s castis tremendous, a major reason for the show’s stunning 95% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes (at time of writing, it stands at 80% in audience score too). It’s easy to forget that, back when the first trailer forSkeleton Crewdropped, some decisions were actually controversial. One was the design of the mysteriousplanet At Attin, homeworld of the Skeleton Crew themselves, which looked a little bit too like real-world suburbia. Since then,Skeleton Crewhas subtly doubled down on this - and it’s a major reason for its success.
Skeleton Crew Is Breaking A Lot More Rules Than That
Lucasfilm go to great lengths to ensure everything in theStar Warsgalaxy looks just a little bit unlike life on Earth. Speaking toLe Mondeback in 2002,Andorshowrunner Tony Gilroy described the limitations he had to work around:
“I remember we were shooting a scene and someone was cleaning a knife.You can’t have a knife, there are no knives inStar Wars, no wheels, no paper. They were a lot more conservative. I like to think ofStar Warsas the Vatican, and in San Francisco there’s the Curia, they literally have a court. There’s a guy, Pablo Hidalgo who says what’s allowable. He has a very difficult job because he has to remember everything (that ever happened in the universe).”
Attentive viewers will have immediately noticedSkeleton Crewis breaking all these rules.There have been knives galore (notably on the Onyx Cinder). InSkeleton Crewepisode 3, Kh’ymm pulled out what really did look to be paper scrolls. It seems the rules have changed.
Why Skeleton Crew’s Rule-Breaking Is The Key To Its Success
TheStar Warsfandom is a divisive one, but it’s surprising to note there have been few complaints about this aspect ofSkeleton Crew. There’s a good reason;these design choices were made carefully and thoughtfully, and they fit in with the themes and pirate aesthetic. Knives are a staple of pirate stories, so they simply had to be part of the show. Kh’ymm’s scroll is basically an ancient treasure map.
How hasStar Warsgotten away with this? Partly, it’s simply becauseStar Wars: Skeleton Crewis good enough for this to be overlooked. But it’s also because the knives and scrolls are historic, pointing to the age of At Attin and the Onyx Cinder. Their unusual nature in theStar Warsgalaxy underscores how old they are, making them part of the mystery in an incredibly smart way.
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew
Cast
Skeleton Crew follows four ordinary children who become lost in the expansive Star Wars galaxy. As they navigate unfamiliar worlds and the challenges they present, the group endeavors to find their way back to their home planet, undertaking a journey across the iconic Star Wars universe.
