Posted in: Disney+, Preview, Star Wars, streaming, Trailer, TV | Tagged: disney plus, skeleton crew, star wars, The Mandalorian

Skeleton Crew Director Jon Watts on "Star Wars" Series, VFX Approach

Skeleton Crew Director Jon Watts discussed the focus of the upcoming "Star Wars" series, combining new & classic VFX techniques, and more.

Earlier this month, we heard from series star Kerry Condon about the "really adventurous" upcoming "The Mandalorian" Universe series, the "great directors" lined up for the season's episodes, and the show's young cast. Following that, Director Jon Watts revealed during an interview at CCXP Mexico (where he took part in Collider's "Director on Directing" panel) that the Lucasfilm series will hit Disney+ screens around Christmastime. Now, Watts is offering some new details on Disney+ & Lucasfilm's Jude Law-starring Skeleton Crew. "It's about a group of kids that find a mysterious secret on their planet and accidentally get lost out in the galaxy, and it's the story about them trying to find their way back home," Watts offered in terms of an overall sense of what viewers can expect – and no, you don't have to be a "Star Wars" scholar to enjoy the ride. "Yeah. You don't need to have really any prior Star Wars knowledge to enjoy it. But if you do, you can enjoy it on many levels." Watts added.

In terms of the show's VFX, Watts shared that they had access to all of the state-of-the-art tools that Lucasfilm has at its disposal – but that doesn't mean that Skeleton Crew won't have its fair share of OG filmmaking magic. "I got to use all the cool stuff on my most recent Star Wars show. We had pre-viz, MOCAP, we shot on the volume, we did everything. But the most fun part was we also used all the old school techniques as well," Watts said. "We got Phil Tippett to do stop-motion. We did matte paintings, like real old-fashioned matte paintings. We got an ILM painter out of retirement to come out and do that. So to me, all that stuff is fun, but it's just another tool, and it depends on how you use it."

What Skeleton Crew, The Clone Wars Share In Common & More

In the following highlights from EW's Dagobah Dispatch podcast from May 2023, EP Jon Favreau discussed how the series fits in the overall "Mandalorian" universe – and how the "Star Wars" universe is well-served by shows with different tones and styles as long as they stay true to core aspects of the franchise:

For Favreau, It's All About Establishing "Different Tones" for Each Series: "One of the things we really like about what the shows that we've been working on have turned into is that the tone of each episode — and in certain cases each series — really reflects the storyteller of the filmmaker. So in 'The Mandalorian', you could have many different tones. Even though the writing is consistent across them, different filmmakers will bring different perspectives. And so each episode hopefully feels different, though they should sit alongside one another. With 'Skeleton Crew,' I would go even further there because it's Watts and Ford and a whole array of wonderful directors — some have worked with us before, some who haven't. And so each episode has its own feel to it."

Favreau on What "Skeleton Crew" Needing to "Feel Like 'Star Wars'" Means to Him: "When people think of Star Wars as a genre, it really is a number of subgenres within the Star Wars genre. Because those were [George Lucas'] influences, so it could feel like a Western, it could feel like a World War II film, it could feel like a samurai film. And so you could push limits."

For Favreau, Dave Filoni's "The Clone Wars" Is a Perfect Example: "Especially on 'The Clone Wars,' they deviated into many different [genres] — to thrillers and to noir and different types of adventures and different tones. So that's what's keeping us engaged and why I'm continuing my collaboration here, is because it's never like you're just doing one thing. There's always room."

While "Skeleton Crew" & "The Mandalorian" Are Different, Favreau Sees Them Similar in One Key Way: "As long as you adhere to a certain aesthetic, and we all agree that it feels like it's Star Wars, there's a lot of room for how you can move around. It's interesting, too, as you see at the [Star Wars Celebration] panel and these great trailers, how different they all are. But they all sit together. You would never group them together, but thanks to the world that George created, they all feel like they share a common underlying aesthetic."

Stemming from Watts & writer Chris Ford, with Watts, Ford, Jon Favreau & Dave Filoni executive producing, the series features episodes directed by Jon Watts, David Lowery, The Daniels, Jake Schreier, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Lee Isaac Chung. In addition, Law is joined in the cast by Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Kyriana Kratter, Robert Timothy Smith, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Tunde Adebimpe, Kerry Condon, and Jaleel White.

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