Star Wars Is Bringing Back 'The Holiday Special' For 'Skeleton Crew'

There is so much supplemental Star Wars material. The story doesn’t end with the films. A Galaxy far, far away has been explored inside and out through games, cartoons, novels, comic books, and fan fiction. Many have used their voices to tell stories of the Jedi, Empire, Rebel Alliance, and Trade Federation. This has been happening for decades, yet perhaps the most infamous example of expanding the Star Wars universe came soon after the first film and was spearheaded by Bruce Vilanch.

The Holiday Special aired on CBS over a year after the release of the first film and then never aired on television again. The reviews were god awful, fans hated it, and George Lucas once claimed he wanted to destroy every copy in existence with a hammer. Despite the special’s poor reception, it remains canon. Numerous references have been made to it in the near-fifty years since its airing.

The biggest element of The Holiday Special to continue through the years is Boba Fett. It’s wild to think that one of the most popular characters in the franchise was birthed from one of the least popular entries. Life Day, the holiday celebrated during the special has also continued on, even being referenced during the Mandalorian. Now, the newest Star Wars project, Skeleton Crew, will recreate a direct sequence from the infamous special.

Creator and director Jon Watts recently revealed that a sequence from The Holiday Special will be recreated in its entirety in his new show. “We thought we would may be able to use some preexisting footage, but no. It was way too low resolution and it was the wrong angles,” Watts explained to The Holofiles. “We had to create this moment from multiple angles, because you see it in various parts of the scene. So we rebuilt the whole thing from scratch.” That’s a lot of effort for something less-than-loved!

Watts was determined to capture the feel of the sequence. “We had to dig up the original designs of the costumes, which were in the Lucasfilm archive, get all the original specs, we had to redo the music from scratch, because there was no copy of the actual score anywhere, so we had to rebuild that.” Watts continued, saying, “It ended up being 20 times more work than we anticipated, and our stunt coordinator is the main performer in it and he was able to re-choreograph the routine too, because it’s a very acrobatic routine. I will say, without saying what it is, which it is pretty obvious now, it was so much work and it was so worth it. My favorite part.”

Chewbacca’s son, Lumpy, watches a Cirque du Soleil-style performance on a holoprojector. Given Watts’ “clues,” that’s likely what will be recreated for his show. Will we see Lumpy? Or a performance from Jefferson Starship? Likely not. But this nod will be fun enough.