Skeleton Crew Hid a Sneaky Star Wars Deep Minimize in Plain Sight

Skeleton Crew didn’t join itself to the broader Star Wars universe via splashy cameos, nevertheless it carried with it plenty of connections and hints to the remainder of the galaxy far, far-off in a litany of offhand notes and Easter eggs. However one sneaky Easter egg is seemingly much more of a deep minimize than followers anticipated.

Early on in Skeleton Crew the viewers and its younger heroes alike are swept to the pirate cove of Port Borgo, surrounded by a complete flotilla of fascinating-looking Star Wars ships. However one stood out specifically: a skinny, white ship briefly glimpsed as the Onyx Cinder made its manner into port. Some followers pegged the design as being from a basic piece of Star Wars idea artwork: Colin Cantwell’s early design for the pirate ship that may finally develop into the Millennium Falcon. Cantwell’s skinny, slim design would finally be iterated on and repurposed into the Tantive IV blockade runner, however may have seemingly made its manner again into Star Wars continuity via Skeleton Crew, similar to how Andor canonized his early Star Destroyer design because the Cantwell-class Arrestor cruiser.

It seems, nonetheless, that the ship wasn’t fairly Cantwell’s. As an alternative, it’s a mashup of that design with the similar-looking Eagle Lander from the Gerry Anderson sci-fi basic House: 1999. Cantwell’s unique design for the ship was truly moved away from attributable to a perceived similarity to the Eagle, so the mashup is kind of applicable—and the “Millennium Eagle” was delivered to life by former ILM modeler and VFX supervisor Invoice George, as a part of a collection imagining a hypothetical show celebrating life-sized scale fashions of basic sci-fi ships and props.

“I’ve at all times beloved the story of how the Pirate Ship design was modified because it was felt it appeared an excessive amount of just like the Eagle from House: 1999,” George not too long ago instructed ColinCantwell.com, a web site not too long ago arrange by family and friends of the deceased artist to have a good time his work. “My unique idea was to do a mash-up of the 2 ships. That wasn’t laborious in any respect as they do have comparable proportions.”

George confirmed that it’s his hybrid design that made it into Skeleton Crew, after former colleagues at ILM reached out to him and requested if they may scan the mannequin to be used within the galaxy far, far-off. “Nobody ever instructed me who was behind the request,” George added, “however after I was requested, I jumped on the alternative! I don’t know, however as soon as a mannequin is made, they have an inclination to indicate up in different media. I’m simply blissful it made it into the background as type of a ‘cameo’ look.”

The ship has but to be instantly recognized inside Star Wars‘ universe, so time will inform if the Millennium Eagle will discover a designation as cheeky as its portmanteau title, or if, just like the Arrestor cruiser, it’ll be recognized by an homage to Cantwell and George in another manner. However no less than a enjoyable little twist on Star Wars‘ design historical past has made its manner again into the galaxy far, far-off the great distance spherical—an concept almost 50 years within the making.

Need extra io9 information? Try when to count on the most recent Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and the whole lot you could learn about the way forward for Doctor Who.