This text incorporates spoilers for “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” season 1, episode 2.
The whole lot can appear harmful whenever you’re a child misplaced in house, and the pirate droid SM-33 makes no exceptions. “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” definitely takes care to border him as a possible risk. When the clunky, partially malfunctioning robotic with an alien critter residing in its empty eye socket regains energy and shuffles into the body, you would be forgiven for pondering you’ve got by chance tuned in to a space-themed horror film and witnessing the primary antagonist.
Luckily, SM-33 — a not-so-subtle nod to Mr. Smee from “Peter Pan,” little question — is firmly on the primary characters’ facet, at the least after one of many present’s younger heroes, Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), convinces him that she’s killed the previous captain of the Onyx Cinder and brought cost. Although previous and decrepit, he proves to be a helpful (if unnerving) ally who may even swap to a succesful fight mode when push involves shove. He additionally occurs to be related to a fellow shady determine from “Star Wars: Episode VII — The Pressure Awakens.”
SM-33 is voiced by Nick Frost, who’s arguably greatest identified for his work in Edgar Wright’s Three Flavors Cornetto trilogy (“Shaun of the Useless,” “Sizzling Fuzz,” and “The World’s Finish”). He stars in every of these three films with Simon Pegg, who himself beforehand performed Unkar Plutt (aka the scheming Crolute junk boss that Daisy Ridley’s Rey has to take care of on Jakku) in “The Pressure Awakens.” Contemplating Plutt’s standing as a high-profile prison barterer and SM-33’s occupation as an area pirate, it is even believable that the 2 characters could have met sooner or later.
Star Wars is however one in all many issues Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have each labored on
Although Simon Pegg has made a reputation for himself with roles like Scotty within the Kelvin timeline “Star Trek” films and Benji Dunn within the “Mission: Unattainable” franchise, it is all the time particular when he joins forces with Nick Frost. The pair’s nuanced and humorous double act is likely to be greatest identified for the Three Flavors Cornetto films, however that is only a small a part of their joint filmography. In spite of everything, they began their prolonged collaboration on the British Channel 4 sitcom “Spaced” in 1999, and have remained on such good phrases that they’ve their very own manufacturing home referred to as Stolen Image.
Arguably, their greatest non-Cornetto work collectively is the loving 2011 sci-fi parody “Paul,” which in addition they wrote. Within the film, Pegg’s Graeme and Frost’s Clive are science-fiction followers who be part of forces with an alien referred to as Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen) on a busy highway journey. Pegg and Frost additionally seem collectively in films just like the 2018 horror-comedy “Slaughterhouse Rulez” and the 2020 Amazon Prime Video collection “Reality Seekers,” and painting detectives Thomson and Thompson in Steven Spielberg’s 2011 animated movie “The Adventures of Tintin.” Talking of animations, in addition they each voice characters in 2014’s “The Boxtrolls.”
Granted, for the time being it appears unlikely that Pegg and Frost will ever immediately cross paths onscreen among the many varied alien races of “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.” Even so, merely the data that each males painting characters within the sci-fi mega-franchise makes “Star Wars” appear just a bit bit extra full.
New episodes of “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” drop Tuesdays at 6pm PST on Disney+.
