This story comprises spoilers for “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” Episode 3.
There’s extra to At Attin than meets the attention.
The peaceable and orderly planet launched in “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” is not only the suburban homeworld of Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), Neel (Robert Timothy Smith), Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) and KB (Kyriana Kratter). The third episode of the Disney+ collection reveals that At Attin is a legendary planet that has been hidden from the galaxy since lengthy earlier than the occasions of the unique “Star Wars” trilogy and the battle between the Empire and Riot.
Described as one of many “Jewels of the Old Republic,” At Attin is among the many “planets of wonder” that have been “hidden for their own protection.” In response to Kh’ymm (voiced by Alia Shawkat), who was tapped to assist the misplaced youngsters looking for a means dwelling, it’s the one one among these planets that wasn’t destroyed way back.
Which means that regardless that the collection, like “The Mandalorian,” is ready in the course of the time of the New Republic — i.e. after the occasions of the unique “Star Wars” trilogy — At Attin’s origins are rooted in an period that spanned for hundreds of years earlier than it.
The newest revelation is “just the tip of the iceberg,” says Jon Watts, the pinnacle author and govt producer of “Skeleton Crew” together with Christopher Ford. “There’s so many little reveals and twists and turns along the way.”
KB (Kyriana Kratter), left, and Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) zipping via the city on a speeder in “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.”
(Lucasfilm Ltd.)
“Skeleton Crew,” which premiered earlier this month, follows a quartet of youngsters who’re looking for their means dwelling after being unexpectedly flung into the galaxy on an outdated starship they stumbled upon within the woods of their neighborhood. Accompanying them are a grumpy droid (Nick Frost) that they discovered aboard the starship and a mysterious, Power-sensitive scoundrel (Jude Legislation) who they met at a spaceport of scum and villainy.
“We liked the idea of a group of kids that don’t know that much about the ‘Star Wars’ galaxy getting lost in the ‘Star Wars’ galaxy,” says Watts. They’re “experiencing it for the first time [in] the story of their journey home.”
For these particular youngsters, house is At Attin, the place they reside in neighborhoods with tract housing and lawns, take the bus or their bikes to high school and work together with numerous service droids. In At Attin, Wim is a latchkey child who desires of Jedi adventures along with his dependable greatest pal Neel. Fern is a little more rebellious, typically zipping via the streets on her speeder along with her greatest pal KB.
However it‘s not long after the kids find themselves out in space that there are hints that At Attin is no ordinary place, including how others react to the planet’s identify in addition to to Wim’s retro lunch cash.
Watts and Ford had envisioned the children’ hometown as a spot that they might wish to go away “not because it was dystopian or … so desolate” — like Luke Skywalker’s Tatooine or Rey’s Jakku — however due to its “benign conformity.”
“The houses are all kind of the same, it’s safe and everyone has what feels like a boring job,” says Watts. “School is boring and you don’t want to do homework. You know that there’s a bigger adventure out there somewhere. You just don’t know how to get it.”
Idea artwork for “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” by Jama Jurabaev.
(Lucasfilm Ltd.)
It was whereas they have been working via the designs and structure of the houses and neighborhoods that At Attin developed right into a suburb.
“I wanted the houses to be really cool and ‘Star Wars’-y,” says Ford. “We had a bunch of different designs, but we couldn’t really judge them until we put them in a row. And when you have them in a row, it totally changed how they felt … As soon as you put them in a row, it creates just this immediate quick read of suburbs.”
For At Attin, says manufacturing designer Doug Chiang, the “Skeleton Crew” group began with a spot “that was somewhat familiar in terms of what ‘Star Wars’ design is, but twisting it a little bit.”
“Suburban Star Wars is something that we’ve never seen before,” Chiang explains. “But the aesthetic was also locked away in time because the planet was hidden.” This meant they have been in a position to lean into the Seventies and ’80s aesthetic of the unique “Star Wars.”
The pop cultural touchstones that each Chiang and his fellow manufacturing designer Oliver Scholl point out are “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1982) and “The Goonies” (1985). However past these universally acknowledged neighborhoods, in addition they checked out real-life locations together with the retrofuturistic Brasilia, the brutalist structure at an Armenian airport and the works of architects like Kenzo Tange and Tadao Ando for inspiration.
A view of At Attin in “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.”
(Lucasfilm Ltd.)
As a result of the children being bored on At Attin is essential to the story, the manufacturing designers had to withstand the urge to be overly playful.
“It can’t be too exciting, because we need to transport that idea across to the audience that this is mundane,” says Scholl. “But it’s mundane in a ‘Star Wars’ context. So it has to be exciting, but still carry across [that] they want to see what’s out there beyond the screen in the sky.”
Plus, the design of At Attin needed to match naturally into the ever-expanding world of “Star Wars.”
“The designs have to speak to a broader universe and it has to make sense,” says Chiang. “A lot of the homework that we do is really to make sure that we figure out all the logic in terms of the evolution of each of these places so that there is an inherent internal logic to ‘Star Wars’ that makes sense within the world we’re developing.”
Virtually, At Attin‘s design took cues from urban planning, with consideration given to where housing would be in relation to people‘s workplaces, residents’ commuting wants and even water sources.
What’s “really great about ‘Star Wars’ in general is that it’s a lived-in future,” says Scholl. “It’s not this abstract, everything is chic and clean and it doesn’t feel real. You can imagine that [At Attin has] been there for a long time. That many generations of kids have been born there and went to that school there.”
Idea artwork for “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” by Jama Jurabaev.
(Lucasfilm Ltd.)
Scholl explains that At Attin contains a rectilinear grid plan metropolis heart, wrapped by suburbia in a extra round sample that “is recognizable from space.” With out mentioning specifics, he hints that at the very least a number of the design is said to At Attin’s bigger mysteries.
When requested about what different secrets and techniques At Attin could harbor, Watts teases that “we made choices for a reason.”
“Us choosing to create At Attin the way it is, and it having similarities to suburbs, there’s a kind of a nostalgia to that,” says Ford. “But in a lot of media, a lot of stories, suburbs are also hiding something. There’s a darker side to it, and that’s all intentional.”