For better or worse, The Last Jedi changed the fabric of Star Wars. One of the most divisive elements in Rian Johnson’s 2017 installment was its lengthy middle portion set in Canto Bight, a playground for the galaxy’s richest political players. Think Las Vegas crossed with Macau and populated with Star Wars characters.
Now Star Wars is about to return to Canto Bight. Or rather, a place exactly like it, which shows just how big an entire galaxy can be.
Making Star Wars editor-in-chief Jason Ward revealed some details he learned about Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, a new live-action series scheduled to premiere on Disney+ in 2023. The series will star Jude Law as a mentor to a group of children, in what’s been previously described as Star Wars meets The Goonies.
In his post, Ward mentions that one of the show’s central locations is an “opulent hotel” where the guests are “Canto Bight rich.”
“Jude Law’s teacher character and the crew are ‘guests’ at an ‘opulent hotel’ at some point during the first season of the series. The people at this location are ‘Canto Bight rich’ and the crew either stay, intend to stay, or pass through this location during season one.”
It’s important to note that Ward doesn’t say Skeleton Crew takes place on Canto Bight, but somewhere visitors are just as wealthy. Between that and the fact this place is also a hotel, it seems Lucasfilm is taking a page or two from The White Lotus.
The Last Jedi first introduced Canto Bight as an homage to Cloud City in Empire Strikes Back, and as a visual swerve from the grungy, dirty hives of scum and villainy seen in other chapters of the Skywalker Saga. It remains a divisive locale and, shortly after the movie’s release, Tor’s Molly Templeton and Joanna Robinson at Vanity Fair wrote in its defense. Both saw its inclusion as essential to the film, its themes, and the wider Star Wars canon. Canto Bight expanded the Skywalker Saga beyond its usual haunts of moisture farms and dimly lit alleys, stirring a little anti-one percent resentment in a saga full of rebels and fascists.
Just as our world has many places for the rich to overindulge, the giant Star Wars universe should have several destinations that resemble Canto Bight. With Skeleton Crew about to follow a bunch of kids running amok in a stuffy establishment, you’ve got a story that feels both fresh and familiar, which is the platonic ideal for anything new in Star Wars.
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew will premiere on Disney+ in 2023.
