Skeleton Crew Is A Love Letter To One Star Wars Movie In Particular (And Not The One You Might Think)

Matt Kennedy/Lucasfilm

From the ground up, "Star Wars: Skeleton Crew" seems tailor-made for fans of the original trilogy, and specifically for anyone who saw that 1977 Mos Eisley cantina scene and thought there should be a lot more stories about those guys. It's a scoundrel's show, full of pirate dens, retrofitted blaster pistols, alien puppets, and practical effects. And yet, the longer the series goes on, the more it reveals its hand as a love letter to a very different "Star Wars" movie and one that has received very little love in the Disney era: "The Phantom Menace."

While animated series like "Star Wars Rebels" and "The Bad Batch" have featured young children in prominent roles, we haven't had major live-action child protagonists in the franchise since Jake Lloyd donned the role of Anakin Skywalker back in 1999. And yet, re-centering younger characters in a galactic adventure feels as core to the franchise as X-wings and lightsabers. While "Skeleton Crew" has earned a lot of praise for doing something unique and different from other recent installments, the show's "Phantom Menace" influence makes it distinctly "Star Wars," just in a way that Disney has generally avoided until now.

Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), for example, is young Anakin to a tee — curious, drawn to adventure, and always dreaming of traveling the stars as a Jedi. While he may be less Force-sensitive (and dangerous), his arc in many ways mirrors Anakin's from "Phantom Menace." And Wim isn't the only way in which "Skeleton Crew" pays tribute to that film.

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Multiple times in "Skeleton Crew," the kids refer to things that are cool or awesome as "wizard." If that seems out of place in Star Wars, then you may have forgotten about Kitster (Dhruv Chanchani), Anakin's best friend on Tatooine, who uses the same phrase to describe his buddy's entry into the big Boonta Eve Classic podrace. "This is so wizard, Annie" is one of those lines that's been memed into a fine paste over the years since "The Phantom Menace" came out, with critical fans putting it up on the corkboard alongside the likes of Jar Jar Binks, midi-chlorians, and "Yippee!" By using the slang term in "Skeleton Crew," the show's writers aren't merely making a reference. They're also making a statement that even parts of "The Phantom Menace" that were previously mocked are active, equal elements of the "Star Wars" universe.

The homages don't stop there. In the modern Star Wars stinger that precedes every Disney+ show, an assortment of helmets and masks from the franchise flash one after another until the logo appears. Each time, the collection of faces changes, often to fit the particular series or episode being watched. In "Skeleton Crew," you may catch Anakin's podracing helmet as part of the cycle, which is certainly no coincidence.

There are smaller things too, like how Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) starts the show off trying to fix a custom-built speeder for a big race, or how Wim's storybook understanding of the Jedi prevents him from recognizing some big truths about the Force, much like Anakin. (Not to mention, old Republic credits are referred to as "dataries," a term used by Qui-Gon Jinn in "The Phantom Menace.") Taken together, it's a subtle yet pervasive salute to a "Star Wars" movie that still doesn't get the appreciation it deserves.

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It wasn't until years after Disney acquired Lucasfilm that the prequels started to get any new love. "Rebels" took some "Clone Wars" storylines but moved them to the Imperial era, while the sequel trilogy kicked off with a nonstop barrage of homages to the original trilogy's iconography, practically begging anyone who hated the prequels to give the franchise another chance. With "Obi-Wan Kenobi," however, Disney finally began pulling from George Lucas' "Star Wars" prequels with flashbacks and the return of actors like Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen. That trend has continued since then, but it's often the latter two prequel films that continue to get more love.

Bringing Ahmed Best back for a cameo in "The Mandalorian" season 3 was a nice touch, but it was more a salute to an actor who deserved much better than it was an embracing of Jar Jar himself. Likewise, "The Acolyte" paid quiet tribute to Qui-Gon Jinn, but in a way that was more interested in the Jedi writ large. What's great about "Skeleton Crew" is that it treats the core ideas of "The Phantom Menace" — the power of childhood innocence and bravery, the value in wanting to explore and discover — as core themes of "Star Wars" as a whole.

"Star Wars" has always been a franchise about repetition, or "rhyming," as Lucas famously once called it, and it's refreshing to see things finally rhyming with what made "The Phantom Menace" unique. The film may not be perfect, but it helped create a whole new generation of "Star Wars" fans. Also, if there's one thing that "Skeleton Crew" has made me think again and again, it's that we all still owe Jake Lloyd an apology.

New episodes of "Skeleton Crew" premiere Tuesdays at 6 pm PST on Disney+.