Star Wars Brings Back A Legendary Original Trilogy VFX Artist For Upcoming TV Show, Skeleton Crew

The Star Wars franchise is returning to its roots, as the upcoming Skeleton Crew TV show taps one of the original trilogy’s legendary VFX artists. Created by the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man director Jon Watts and frequent collaborator Christopher Ford, Skeleton Crew is being touted as a coming-of-age story set within the Star Wars universe during the time of The Mandalorian. Starring Jude Law as an as-yet-unnamed Jedi Knight, the show will focus on a group of children who find themselves lost in the wider galaxy and are seeking a way home.

During a recent interview with Collider at CCXP Mexico City, Watts talked about his upcoming show and how he has blended cutting-edge digital effects with classic movie-making tricks straight out of the Star Wars original trilogy. Revealing that not only does Skeleton Crew make use of old-fashioned matte paintings, the director also explained that VFX legend Phil Tippett worked on stop-motion animation for the show. In terms of more modern technology, Watts also used motion capture and Lucasfilm’s ground-breaking Volume set. Check out his comments below:

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.

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Since the franchise’s inception, Star Wars has been well-known for sitting at the forefront of visual effects technology. Not only did 1977’s original Star Wars result in the founding of Industrial Light and Magic, one of Hollywood’s premier VFX companies, but the first movie would also introduce a range of filmmaking technologies that would come to be adopted by countless other projects to follow. Yet this tradition of innovation would not end with George Lucas’ original Star Wars trilogy, and his later work on the prequels would also inspire several key innovations in digital effects technology.

Yet as impressive as digital effects have become, there are still notable drawbacks to using more modern approaches in favor of the more practical approach employed in the franchise’s earliest entries. While new advances, such as Lucasfilm’s Volume technology, may have enabled shows like The Mandalorian to be made at a fraction of the cost of other methods, they still lack the depth and grounded nature of practical sets and stop-motion animation methods.

Watts’ decision to blend these latest tools with older techniques can give audiences the best of both worlds, offering impressive visuals bolstered by the artistry and detailed efforts to produce old-fashioned matte paintings and stop-motion creatures. With Tippett perhaps best known for his work in bringing The Empire Strikes Back’s Imperial Walkers and Tauntauns to life, it will be interesting to see what his contributions will add to Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.

Source: Collider

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew

Skeleton Crew is a Disney+ original series set in the Star Wars universe.The series was created by Jon Watts and Christopher Ford and tells the story of four young kids that must find their way home after becoming lost in the galaxy. The story takes place during the same time frame as The Mandalorian.

Cast

Jude Law , Kerry Condon , Ryan Kiera Armstrong , Tunde Adebimpe , Ravi Cabot-Conyers , Robert Timothy Smith

Seasons

1

Streaming Service(s)

Disney+

Writers

Jon Watts , Christopher Ford

Directors

Jon Watts , Daniel Kwan , David Lowery , Daniel Scheinert , Jake Schreier

Showrunner

Jon Watts , Christopher Ford