From “THX 1138” to B-Wing Starfighters – The Easter Eggs of “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” Episodes 7 & 8

There are also some ominous nods to Emperor Palpatine and his works.

Now that the full season of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is available to stream on Disney+, let’s go through the Easter Eggs, allusions, and homages in its final two episodes, entitled “We’re Gonna Be In So Much Trouble” and “The Real Good Guys.”

Starting with “We’re Gonna Be In So Much Trouble,” the communication device built by the parents to contact their children is reminiscent of the one built in Steven Spielberg’s beloved 1982 family film E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial for E.T. to contact his own family.

Neel’s mother Nooma starts to say the line “I have a bad feeling about this” but is interrupted by the lights of the security droids turning on. This line was first spoken by Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars film (AKA Episode IV – A New Hope) and has been repeated in a variety of iterations and media throughout the franchise, to the point where it had become a groan-worthy in-joke.

The circular blue stun blasts used by the security droids to incapacitate the parents were also first seen in A New Hope and have carried over to the larger saga.

The term “maelstrom” has been used numerous times in Star Wars before, most prominently to refer to the Akkadese Maelstrom that surrounded the planet Kessel, necessitating the existence of the Kessel Run.

What I don’t believe we have heard before in Star Wars is the specific phrase “Treasure Planet”— which also happens to be the title of a 2002 Walt Disney Animation Studios feature film inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s iconic pirate adventure story Treasure Island.

The Pirate Snub Fighter piloted by the Quarren pirate Glerb into the atmospheric storm is the same design as the ones that first appeared in season 3 of The Mandalorian. There’s even a 2023 LEGO set of this ship that comes with a minifigure of Vane, another (Nikto) pirate character who appears in this episode.

The Aurebesh readout on Captain Brutus’s holographic display reads “SIGNAL LOST” (backwards, so it can be read from his perspective) when Glerb’s ship is destroyed by the storm.

The concept of tractor beams was borrowed by George Lucas from the Star Trek franchise and other, earlier science-fiction stories. Obi-Wan Kenobi memorably had to deactivate the one on the Death Star in A New Hope.

The Gran pirate Pax speaks Huttese to the kids. This fictional language was introduced in Return of the Jedi but was later retconned to have appeared in A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. Outside of Galactic Basic, it is the most common language spoken in A Galaxy Far, Far Away. A trailer for Skeleton Crew made clever use of it, translating the 1980s pop song “Major Tom” into the intergalactic tongue.

The voice of the Supervisor is provided by famous British actor and comedian Stephen Fry, who is perhaps best known to American audiences for his roles in the movies Gosford Park, V for Vendetta, and Wilde. He also voiced the narrator in Touchstone Pictures’ 2005 feature adaptation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and played the Judge in the 1996 Disney-distributed live-action film Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.

A security droid tells Jod that At Attin has 1,139 vaults full of Old Republic credits, which is one more than the title number in Star Wars creator George Lucas’s first film THX 1138– another oft-utilized Lucasfilm reference in Star Wars material.

The shot of Jod igniting his lightsaber as he approaches the families reminds me of Anakin doing the same thing when he’s about to massacre the Jedi younglings in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.

Moving on to the finale “The Real Good Guys,” some of the food-preparation equipment in Wendle’s kitchen looks like what Aunt Beru used at the Lars Homestead in A New Hope.

Wim uses his action figures as a ruse to fool the security droid watching his home, pretending to “save Princess Fern”— an obvious reference to Princess Leia and the events of A New Hope.

The Supervisor being revealed as an enormous droid instead of a living being brings to mind the “man behind the curtain” aspect of The Wizard of Oz.

The Supervisor’s single red eye reminds me a lot of the villainous artificial intelligence HAL 9000 in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey, a film that George Lucsas is known to have admired greatly. Although unlike HAL, here the Supervisor can change his eye from red to blue and back again.

The supervisor’s line “I have been watching over you and your daughter with great interest” is a paraphrase of a famously ominous line spoken by Senator Sheev Palpatine to young Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.

“The last message from the Republic stated that all Jedi were traitors” is a clear allusion to Order 66 and the Jedi Purge instigated by Supreme Chancellor-turned-Emperor Palpatine in Revenge of the Sith.

The fact that Jod “killing” the Supervisor deactivates all the security droids on At Attin is similar to how the Droid Control Ship worked in The Phantom Menace.

Wendle stealing Bonjj Phalfa’s hoverbike reminds me of Josh Brolin’s character Brand stealing Data’s younger sister’s bicycle in The Goonies.

“Here they come!” is another oft-repeated phrase in Star Wars storytelling, first uttered by Princess Leia during the Death Star escape in A New Hope. There was also a track of John Williams’s beloved score from the film with this title on several versions of the soundtrack.

Speaking of familiar phrases, “Full Throttle” is yet another line lifted from A New Hope, but it’s also the title of a great 1990s adventure game from LucasArts.

Docking clamps (also known as a docking claw) date back to the 1979 Expanded Universe novel Han Solo at Star’s End and are what Han Solo utilized to attach the Millennium Falcon to the back of an Imperial Star Destroyer in The Empire Strikes Back. Since then they’re also popped up in multiple Star Wars books, comics, and video games.

A droid being repaired to working order after being decapitated has happened numerous times in Star Wars history, with the most notable example being when Chewbacca fixes C-3PO in The Empire Strikes Back.

Jod says that his Jedi Master was hunted down and executed while she was on the run, presumably by the Inquisitorius from Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi, and other media.

When New Republic forces arrive on At Attin, they bring with them both X-wing and B-wing starfighters, the latter of which were introduced to fans in Return of the Jedi.

Seeing the pile of Republic credits followed by KB spilling out of the Onyx Cinder’s hold, I couldn’t help but think of Scrooge McDuck swimming in his piles of money in Disney’s DuckTales cartoon and the Uncle Scrooge comic books that inspired it.

One of the final New Republic ships to appear is a CR90 Corellian Corvette, also known as a blockade runner. A ship like this was the first to ever appear on screen in the original Star Wars film.

And lastly, Wim looking up in admiration for the New Republic ships flying around At Attin brought to mind the character of Broom Boy (also known as Temiri Blagg) from the final shot of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

The full season of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is now available to stream, exclusively via Disney+.

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Mike Celestino
Mike serves as Laughing Place's lead Southern California reporter, Editorial Director for Star Wars content, and host of the weekly "Who's the Bossk?" Star Wars podcast. He's been fascinated by Disney theme parks and storytelling in general all his life and resides in Burbank, California with his beloved wife and cats.