Skeleton Crew didn’t join itself to the broader Star Wars universe by means of splashy cameos, however it carried with it a lot of connections and hints to the remainder of the galaxy far, distant in a litany of offhand notes and Easter eggs. However one sneaky Easter egg is outwardly much more of a deep lower 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 an entire flotilla of fascinating-looking Star Wars ships. However one stood out particularly: a skinny, white ship briefly glimpsed as the Onyx Cinder made its method into port. Some followers pegged the design as being from a traditional piece of Star Wars idea artwork: Colin Cantwell’s early design for the pirate ship that may ultimately turn out to be the Millennium Falcon. Cantwell’s skinny, slender design would ultimately be iterated on and repurposed into the Tantive IV blockade runner, however might have seemingly made its method again into Star Wars continuity by means of Skeleton Crew, identical to how Andor canonized his early Star Destroyer design because the Cantwell-class Arrestor cruiser.
It seems, nevertheless, 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 traditional Area: 1999. Cantwell’s unique design for the ship was truly moved away from because of a perceived similarity to the Eagle, so the mashup is kind of applicable—and the “Millennium Eagle” was dropped at life by former ILM modeler and VFX supervisor Invoice George, as a part of a sequence imagining a hypothetical present celebrating life-sized scale fashions of traditional sci-fi ships and props.
“I’ve all the time liked the story of how the Pirate Ship design was modified because it was felt it regarded an excessive amount of just like the Eagle from Area: 1999,” George lately instructed ColinCantwell.com, a website lately arrange by family and friends of the deceased artist to rejoice his work. “My unique idea was to do a mash-up of the 2 ships. That wasn’t onerous in any respect as they do have related 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, distant. “Nobody ever instructed me who was behind the request,” George added, “however once I was requested, I jumped on the alternative! I don’t know, however as soon as a mannequin is made, they have a tendency to indicate up in different media. I’m simply blissful it made it into the background as form of a ‘cameo’ look.”
The ship has but to be straight 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 method. However at the very least a enjoyable little twist on Star Wars‘ design historical past has made its method again into the galaxy far, distant the good distance spherical—an concept practically 50 years within the making.
Need extra io9 information? Take a look at when to count on the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on movie and TV, and all the things it’s essential find out about the way forward for Physician Who.
