By George & Josh Bate
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew – Episode 4
The fourth episode of Skeleton Crew sees the lost children continue their journey back home to the mysterious planet At Attin. In addition to showing the next steps of the kids’ adventure, the new episode all features a handful of interesting hidden details, references, parallels, and easter eggs.
Keep reading for a full breakdown of all of the easter eggs and hidden details in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew – Episode 4.
The fourth episode is directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as Daniels). The directing duo is known for writing and directing Everything Everywhere All At Once, which won the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.
The ruined planet the kids land on is called At Achrann. This is similar to the Irish word ‘Achrann,’ which means conflict. Given At Achrann is a planet ruined by war, this name is particularly fitting.
The shot of the Onyx Cinder landing on the ruined planet At Achrann mirrors initial concept art for Skeleton Crew, which was one of our first looks at the show from several years ago.
Jod Na Nawood says the planet tastes like “ashy dust,” which reminds him of his homeworld. This is the first hint at Nawood’s background. When thinking of planets that could be described as “ashy dust,” a number come to mind, including Dathomir and Mustafar. It’s unlikely that Nawood is from Dathomir or Mustafar, however. But you never know!
Inside the rundown house the children uncover on the ruined planet, the same mural featured in the home of Fern on At Attin. Both murals seem to depict At Attin and the other Jewels of the Old Republic. This is the first of many hints in this episode that At Attin and the other 8 planets that constitute the Jewels of the Old Republic were designed similarly, with near identical buildings and architecture.
Wim hypothesizes that they may actually be on At Attin after falling asleep for 100 years. He mentions that this is like the “Tales of the Knights of -” before being interrupted. Any mention of ‘Knights’ in Star Wars obviously gets us thinking about Knights of the Old Republic, the iconic Star Wars video game. A number of stories have characters wake up from a long sleep and emerge to a changed world, including Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving, the Buck Rogers story Armageddon 2419 by Phillip Francis Nowlan, and The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.
When going through the kids’ belongings, Nawood turns on a recording of the performance that Neel’s siblings were watching in Episode 1. This performance is taken from The Star Wars Holiday Special.
SM-33 once knew of At Attin, but his memory has since been scrambled, hence the confusion and disorientation the droid often experiences. This is not the first time that Star Wars has featured droids with lost or impaired memories. Most notably, C-3PO underwent a procedure in The Rise of Skywalker that saw his memory temporarily wiped. A more striking parallel is to the underappreciated Disney animated film Treasure Planet. In that film, an old robot named BEN (voiced by Martin Short) has his memory erased in order to prevent others from finding a lost treasure.
Wim asks Hayna if she and the other children on the planet are fighting the adults for control of the planet. In that Skeleton Crew is a Star Wars take on a pirate adventure, it is possible this is a reference to Peter Pan, in which Peter Pan and the Lost Boys team up against Captain Hook and his pirate crew. It may also be a reference to the 2015 comic series Star Wars, which featured Yoda uncovering a planet on which children were at war with adults.
Hayna’s blaster looks somewhat like a Dalek gun from Doctor Who.
The tribes on the ruined planet have Eopies. These camel-like animals were first depicted on Tatooine in The Phantom Menace and have since appeared in Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, The Clone Wars, Battlefront II, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and more.
The damaged bus is driven by an RX-series droid, which is the same model of droid that originally piloted the Disney Parks ride Star Tours. An RX-series droid was previously seen this season as the driver of Wim and Neel’s school bus in episode 1.
Several of the Hattan soldiers wear the same kind of Imperial helmets that soldiers wore in the Battle of Mimban as depicted in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Later on, members of the Troik tribe can also be seen wearing similar helmets.
General Strix, leader of the Troik tribe, is played by French actor Matthieu Kassovitz. He is known for acting in See How They Fall and writing and directing the acclaimed Le Haine.
Members of the Troik tribe include people of various species, including a Rhodian (like Greedo) and an Ithorian.
Neel mentions the sport Slap Ball. Although this hasn’t been mentioned in Star Wars before, similarly named sports like Smashball and Shockball do exist in the galaxy.
Wim cranks up a blaster’s power setting, which is the first time this occurs in Star Wars canon. Previously, Alan Dean Foster’s novelization of the original Star Wars had a character doing this, as did several older Marvel comics. But this is the first time in canon that a character has been shown on screen changing the power of a blaster.
The episode reveals the names of several other planets that make up the Jewel of the Old Republic. These include At Achrann (which is where this episode is primarily set), At Aytuu, At Arissia, At Aravin, and At Acoda. None of these planets have previously appeared in Star Wars.
Neel passing out after ‘fighting’ SM-33 is somewhat like the Rancor and Grogu falling asleep after their showdown in The Book of Boba Fett.
