Skeleton Crew: Jon Watts explains premiere's Star Wars Holiday Special reference

The first episode of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, "This Could Be A Real Adventure," paid major homage to the origins of the franchise, but one in particular stood out to anyone who knows what happened on November 17, 1978. If you weren't thinking of The Star Wars Holiday Special, well, you are now.

And so was series co-creator Jon Watts when developing the show. He told Entertainment Weekly that he was so fascinated by one particular scene in the infamous TV special that he wanted to make sure to honor it -- by recreating it, of course.

"I've just always been fascinated by that weird little circus hologram,” he said -- referring to the scene in which Chewbacca's son, Lumpy (now canon, at least according to The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special), views a mesmerizing (not said in a good way) hologram performance.

We use the term "recreating" deliberately here. According to Watts, the original recording of the hologram wasn't possible for multiple reasons. One, they needed to shoot it from multiple angles. Two, the original footage just wasn't of good enough quality to be usable.

If you missed it, the circus hologram is briefly shown in the first Skeleton Crew episode when Neel's family are in their living room. Whether you caught the reference or not, it's an interesting nod to an often controversial piece of Star Wars history. But it's history nonetheless -- hopefully, for all our sakes, not to be repeated in full.

Editor's Note: As someone who loves The Holiday Special, I say bring on another one with Peli Motto!

It's likely that Watts and fellow co-creator Christopher Ford have inserted many more Easter Eggs into what remains of the series. From the very first scene, Star Wars' deep and powerful origins were present. We're so lucky to be Star Wars fans during a time when longtime lovers of the universe are now in positions where they get to play in George Lucas's sandbox. What lies ahead may be uncertain, but isn't the future always that way -- at least according to a certain Jedi Master?

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is now streaming exclusively on Disney+.