Skeleton Crew episode 3 drops some major shocks about its two big mysteries – and one has ties to a very recent Star Wars comic series
- Skeleton crew episode 3 pulls back the curtain on some of the show’s big secrets
- The creators discussed what these revelations will mean for the next five episodes of the Star Wars series
- However, they admit that they had to be careful about “contradicting” pre-established franchise narratives
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew episode 3 has landed on Disney Plus – and the show’s latest chapter begins to pull back the curtain on its biggest mysteries.
Indeed, Skeleton crewThe third episode of the series features more teases about who Jude Law’s Jod Na Nawood really is, as well as some fascinating revelations about the planetary enigma At Attin, which I previously teased in my Star Wars: Skeleton Crew judgement. Armed with a small but important list of questions about the aforementioned mysteries, I asked series creators Jon Watts and Christopher Ford for answers.
Major spoilers follow immediately Skeleton crew episode 3. Turn back now if you haven’t seen it yet.
Wait, Jod is both Captain Silvo and Crimson Jack?
Let’s start with Law’s duplicitous character, because episode 3 reveals that Jod may not be his real name after all. Two other characters – a pirate named Benjar Pranic and Kh’ymm, an owl-like astronomer – call him “Captain Silvo” and “Crimson Jack” at various points in the final entry of the Star Wars show.
Both aliases are hugely important revelations. As for Silvo, this is the same name of the tricorne-wearing pirate captain we saw at the beginning of the eight-part series. He is the person whose crew rebels against him after yet another ship heist in the New Republic fails to yield a huge monetary gain.
As for Crimson Jack, he’s a male pirate who only made his Star Wars debut in a very recent comic book series published by Marvel. The miniseries, titled ‘Star Wars: Halcyon Legacy’, is set during the First Order-Resistance War – or the same time period as the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
‘Wait,’ I hear you crying,’ Skeleton crew is set decades before the events of the sequel trilogy, so how can Jod Crimson be Jack?’. It’s a good question, especially since Watts and Ford previously confirmed to me where Skeleton crew is officially on the Star Wars timeline.
It is clear that the same pseudonym was first used by Jod and later adopted by another pirate, or that the Crimson Jack that appears in Halcyon Legacy is merely an outdated version of Jod. Unfortunately, but also understandably, Watts or Ford were reluctant to reveal more about Jod’s past and his various nicknames because, well, spoilers.
“That’s a spoiler,” Watts said awkwardly before Ford quickly added, “Yeah, that’s, uh – we’re being told not to answer that by someone (a member of the PR team) behind a curtain. You’ll have to watch to find out! But it’s definitely referenced in episode 3, yes.”
Okay, what about At Attin and this new Star Wars language called Palmarish?
Fortunately, the latest new Star Wars shows and movies of 2024, plus the showrunners, have been less vague about the series’ other big mystery, which concerns At Attin.
During the two-episode premiere of one of the best Disney Plus shows, At Attin was revealed to be something of an old wives’ tale. A group of pirates from Port Borgo discuss the apparently mythological planet with Wim and Neel, calling it a “lost planet of eternal treasures”. In episode 3, Kh’ymm similarly describes it as one of the “Jewels of the Old Republic”, that is, planets of wonder that were kept hidden from prying eyes. All but one of these worlds were destroyed, with At Attin being the only survivor.
That’s not the only curious thing we learn about At Attin in this episode. Kh’ymm notices an unusual mark on Fern’s backpack and confirms the existence of yet another new addition to Star Wars: Palmarish’s extensive catalog of symbols. This numerical system, according to Kh’ymm, was last seen on “proto-Republic artifacts”, meaning it was used centuries or even millennia before the Republic’s existence. If Kh’ymm is referring to the Old Republic rather than its newer counterpart, Palmarish could even have ties to James Mangold’s upcoming Star Wars film, which will reportedly explore the dawn of the Jedi.
But I digress. What does Palmarish mean? And how will it, like Attin and his fellow “Jewels of the Old Republic,” redefine or reshape the vast history of Star Wars?
“(Palmarish) is just a number system,” Ford says. “But it was our way of saying that there are older levels of lore that go way back and are potentially separate from the pure republic or basic stuff we’ve seen in the past.”
As for At Attin’s importance to the wider universe, Ford added: “Introducing a potentially powerful and ancient lore was something we worked very closely on with (Star Wars Chief Creative Officer) Dave Filoni and the Lucasfilm Story Group. The idea was that we didn’t want to establish anything that would contradict or endanger the history of the Republic. So the idea would be that this is its own planetary system from long ago and largely forgotten.”