In 1977, the first Star Wars film released in theaters and changed the entertainment landscape as we know it. Nearly 50 years later, the franchise continues to captivate audiences of all generations and tell new stories from its vast universe.
The newest Star Wars tale is the Disney+ series Skeleton Crew which shakes up the traditional expectations and instead of focusing on Jedi, Mandalorians, clones or rebels follows some of the galaxy’s most unlikely heroes: a group of random, ordinary kids from a quiet, peaceful planet. When four children discover and accidentally launch a spaceship, they must confront droids, pirates and aliens while trying to find their way home.
13-year-old Ravi Cabot-Conyers plays the show’s main character Wim, said even though the show is about kids and made for kids, the “lighthearted, fun energy” makes it appealing to audiences of all ages.
Check out the full interview with Ravi Cabot-Conyers below:
“For the older generations, it’s the ’80s, nostalgic Amblin-style that is so fun and the for the newer generations, it’s a good on ramp and introduction to the Star Wars universe, because it’s relatable,” Cabot-Conyers said during our Wim-sical interview. “It’s got so many fun characters and diverse friendships, and it’s a really strong and impactful story. It really brings something new to the Star Wars universe, and it’s so fresh and it’s a completely new perspective being led through the eyes of children.”
In the series, Wim is a precocious young boy who obsesses over tales of the Jedi and seeks adventure beyond the safe, predictable life on his home planet of At Attin. Cabot-Conyers says that both he and Wim are similar to an iconic Star Wars figure.
“Wim and I are both pretty similar to Luke Skywalker. I feel like, you know, the kindness [and] we really care for our friends,” he said. “[Wim is] adventurous, he’s brave, he’s a daydreamer. He sometimes got his head in the clouds. He doesn’t have a mom and his dad isn’t around too much. He wants to give a lot of love, and he wants to get a lot of love. I feel like those are the main priorities for him, and he wants so much out of life, because he has so much more to give.”
Like Wim, if he found himself whisked away on a space pirate adventure, Cabot-Conyers said that he would want to be calling the shots and be as involved as possible.
“If there were multiple crew members, I feel like I’d be a captain,” he said. “If I had the ship all to myself, I would be doing everything, just like on set, how I would be doing every single job. I would go over to the camera department. They let me move the camera a few times, you know, pull focus. I would go to the sound and I would see how everything gets done over there. I got invited to the editing suite.”
Cabot-Conyers was first introduced to Star Wars by his father when he was five years old and has been a fan ever since.
“I watched A New Hope for the first time and I loved it, I was immediately hooked. I loved Luke Skywalker, Mark Hamill’s performance is so fun and fantastic,” the young actor said. “My dad even made me a little cheat sheet when we found out I got Skeleton Crew so that I could understand the aliens a bit more and all the references that might be in Skeleton Crew. Even though I was already very familiar with the universe, I’m very glad he did, because there are so many cool aliens in Skeleton Crew.”
As a character in the Star Wars universe, Cabot-Conyers finds himself in the position that any fan would want: being immortalized in LEGO, Funkos and other toys and merch. It’s an experience that he finds weird and exciting.
“Minifigures were some one of my favorite parts, if not my favorite part, of LEGO, so now being one is so strange but so much fun, and I genuinely can’t believe it,” he said. “When I got one of the prototypes [of a Wim action figure], I was so happy. I couldn’t believe it, and I didn’t even know it was just a prototype. I thought that was going to be the final one. And then I got the the newer one, and I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, I have two of me now.’ It’s such an honor. It’s hard to put it into words how I’m feeling, but you know, it’s so exciting.”
One theory regarding Skeleton Crew that has emerged online is that it canonizes former Disneyland space adventure attraction Captain EO, which was written and produced by Star Wars creator George Lucas, as an official part of Star Wars. In addition to the world premiere of Skeleton Crew being hosted at the Disneyland Tomorrowland Theater, which previously housed the Captain EO attraction, many of the show’s characters resemble ones from the attraction. In particular, Cabot-Conyers shares a resemblance to the Captain EO character, who is played by a young Michael Jackson.
Though he claimed he hadn’t seen the online chatter, Cabot-Conyers cheekily put his fingers to his lips, so maybe he knows more than he’s letting on.
“I can see that. That’s a good theory,” he said. “We’ll see what happens. There’s still four more episodes left. Every Tuesday. It’s gonna be exciting. See where the show goes. It’s a lot of fun!”