Later this year, a new ‘Star Wars’ show is set to debut on Disney+ called “Skeleton Crew,” which “follows the journey of four kids who make a mysterious discovery on their seemingly safe home planet, then get lost in a strange and dangerous galaxy. Finding their way home—and meeting unlikely allies and enemies—will be a greater adventure than they ever imagined.”
Now, we have learned that Lucasfilm is taking the show back to the old techniques used in the original Star Wars films, including matte paintings from a retired ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) painter and even stop-motion animation from Phil Tippett.
For those who don’t know, Phil Tippett helped create a special animation technique called “go motion” to animate the AT-AT walkers and tauntauns in “The Empire Strikes Back,” and he led the creature shop in “Return of the Jedi.”
“Skeleton Crew” co-creator Jon Watts spoke to Collider about the show and explained how they are using old and new filmmaking techniques, including motion capture (MOCAP) and stop-motion animation, to try to bring the show to life.
Here’s what he said,
“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. 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.”
It’s exciting to see these old techniques used again. While the newer shows have been better with the special effects, the originals seemed to have more life with the mix of practical effects, animation, and real sets.
“Skeleton Crew” stars Jude Law, Kerry Cordon, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Robert Timothy Smith, Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Kyriana Kratter, Tunde Adebimpe and more.
The eight-episode series will be released later this year.
Hopefully, bringing Tippett and others back from ILM will be a great step forward in making the show feel more authentic to the “Star Wars” brand.
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