Star Wars: Skeleton Crew featured a reference to one of Disneyland’s most popular attractions, but you might have missed it. Disney acquired Star Wars in 2012, but the company has a long history with the franchise, having established rides and attractions in Disney theme parks worldwide based on the popular franchise. Following the Lucasfilm acquisition, Disney theme parks opened various lands based on Star Wars and did heavy cross-promotion across the franchise with books and comics referring to the theme park attractions. Solo: A Star Wars Story and Young Jedi Adventures have made explicit references to Black Spire Outpost, the in-universe name of the Disneyland and Disneyworld Star Wars lands, but Skeleton Crew might have featured the best reference yet because of its subtlety.
As pointed out by SlashFilm, Episode 6 of Skeleton Crew, “Zero Friends Again,” featured the four main characters of the series in an exciting climax, splitting off to tackle different duties – similar to those found in the Disney ride Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run – to save themselves and their ship, the Onyx Cinder, from destruction. Fern and Neel are in the pilot seats, with Fern operating the steering and Neel controlling the thrusters. Wimm operates as the ship’s gunner, with KB being the engineer working on the ship’s engine.
Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run was the opening attraction for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and opened to the public on May 31, 2019, in Disneyland, and then in Disney World on August 29, 2019. The six-seater ride has guests split off into groups of two for three different tasks: pilots, gunners, and engineers. The two pilots are up front, with the rider on the left moving the ship left and right while the rider on the right side moves the ship up and down. Gunners are responsible for shooting down enemies and obstacles in the way, while the engineers repair the ship as it takes damage during the flight.
‘Skeleton Crew’s Past References to Disney Theme Parks

A reference to Star Wars: Galaxy Edge in Skeleton Crew is in keeping with the series’ tradition of referring to Lucasfilm’s collaborations with Disney theme park attractions. An RX pilot droid from Star Tours can be seen in the Star Wars opening logo credits and is one of the bus drivers on At Attin. Fuzzball, the alien sidekick from the Michael Jackson-starring, Lucasfilm-produced Disney show Captain EO, was seen in Skeleton Crew Episode 2. While Skeleton Crew has been light on references to the broader Star Wars universe in terms of other films and television series, it draws from the franchise’s long history in unexpected ways.

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There is also something thematically fitting about Skeleton Crew drawing inspiration from a Disney attraction. In a story focused on kids, with that age range being the series’ target demographic, it makes sense to reference a popular Star Wars attraction at Disney theme parks, which, for many younger audiences, is part of what makes something feel like Star Wars. However, we don’t expect to see a reference to the failed Star Wars hotel, Galactic Starcruiser, anytime soon.

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Cast

Jude Law
, Ravi Cabot-Conyers
, Ryan Kiera Armstrong
, Kyriana Kratter
, Robert Timothy Smith
, Tunde Adebimpe
, Kerry Condon
, Nick Frost