The newest Star Wars TV series is keeping the love of the prequel trilogy alive. Star Wars: Skeleton Crew just debuted its first two episodes on Disney+ this week, taking fans to a new corner of the galaxy as a group of kids accidentally embarks on a pirate adventure. It’s not very connected to most of the other Star Wars shows and movies (which is a good thing), but Skeleton Crew does wear its love of past Star Wars titles on its sleeve.
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Fans of the Star Wars prequels likely noticed a very blatant reference to Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace in the premiere episode of Skeleton Crew, as the series pulled one of the goofiest (and now most beloved) quotes from the film. 25 years after the release of The Phantom Menace, Skeleton Crew brought back the “wizard” catchphrase that was infamously born from a conversation between kids on Tatooine.
When Anakin shows off his podracer to a friend ahead of the Boonta Eve race, the pal replies by saying, “This is so wizard, Ani.” The attempt at creating Star Wars youth slang was met with audible groans in 1999, but it has become somewhat endearing to a generation of fans that grew up on The Phantom Menace.
In the premiere of Skeleton Crew, Wim says the same thing about the hoverbike ridden by his soon-to-be cohort, Fern. He tells her that the bike is “totally wizard,” proving that the slang from Tatooine has persisted throughout the galaxy.
Skeleton Crew Calls Back to Holiday Special
That callback to The Phantom Menace is far from the only reference to a controversial Star Wars title that was featured in Skeleton Crew. The series also brought back the hologram circus program from 1978 infamous Star Wars Holiday Special.
“That is easily one of my favorite parts of the whole show,” co-creator and director Jon Watts told EW. “And I’m glad that it’s in the first episode just so we can get it out of the way. I’ve just always been fascinated by that weird little circus hologram.”
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Watts went on to confirm that the circus footage they used in Skeleton Crew was not the same footage from the Holiday Special, but rather a recreation by the show’s team.
“We recreated it. We initially wanted to see if we could get the original footage, but it’s so low resolution because it was a TV special,” Watts explained.
“It was limiting because we would have to have used the same angle,” added co-creator Christopher Ford. “We needed to shoot it from multiple angles.”
