We’ve seen it all before. Breakouts of a beloved indie film move on to much bigger, blockbustery things. And it’s happening to Everything Everywhere All At Once duo The Daniels, aka Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who just won Best Directors and Best Picture Oscars. So they’re movin’ on up, and it doesn’t get much bigger, or blockbustery, than Star Wars, and that’s where they’re headed.
One Take News was first to report, and it’s subsequently been confirmed by other outlets and The Daniels themselves, that the duo is part of the directing team for Skeleton Crew. This is the Star Wars series on Disney+ starring Jude Law and created by Spider-Man director Jon Watts.
Billed as “The Goonies in space”, the series set during the New Republic era centers on a group of lost kids trying to find their way home in the big, dangerous galaxy.
The series has already completed filming, so Lucasfilm has done a good job of holding this news until it’s to their best advantage. Guaranteed there will be a lot more eyes on the show now, knowing that The Daniels are part of it.
Then again, some are already calling the duo “sellouts” for directing Star Wars. Kwan took to Instagram to explain that they’re only directing a single episode, not an entire series, and they agreed to it before Everything Everywhere was even a thing.
“Lol, all of the people @ing us about getting sucked up by the ‘corporate machine’ can chill. These headlines are always misleading. Don’t worry. We aren’t working on a whole series, we guest directed one episode. Jon Watts approached us to do an episode awhile ago (before ‘EEAAO’ even came out). We love Jon, love ‘Star Wars,’ love learning new tech, we love meeting new cast and crew, and we needed the days to keep our healthcare (!!!) so it was an easy yes. We shot it last year and had an incredible time working with the most talented cast and crew and i’m excited for you all to see it.”
Kwan then added something that will make their fans very happy, “Our next film will be an original Daniels project so you can stop worrying (and stop bothering me about it).”
I don’t think The Daniels have anything to explain. If they want to take what they’ve earned and move on to direct something as part of a franchise, that’s their business to do so. In fact, I kinda hope they do now just to piss off their angry so-called fans.
Look for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew to hit Disney+ later this year.