These days, video games and television/movies are pretty closely intertwined. More and more we're starting to see studios adapt some of the biggest video game franchises into a series or movie, to varying degrees of success. And in some instances, movies have video game tie-ins.
So it's perhaps no surprise then that Star Wars: Skeleton Crew was inspired by a video game. For those unfamiliar, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is a coming-of-age story about four kids trying to make their way back home. "After making a mysterious discovery, four kids get lost in the Star Wars galaxy," the synopsis reads. "Finding their way home — and meeting unlikely allies and enemies — will be a greater adventure than they ever imagined."
EW recently released some promotional images, highlighting some of the fearsome pirates the kids will come across on their adventure. Chief among them is Jaleel White's cyborg pirate, Gunter. There's also Vane (Marti Matulis), who you might recognize from The Mandalorian, along with Brutus, Pax, and Chaelt.
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is said to have been "inspired by the 1980s Amblin films like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and The Goonies." The first trailer seemed to solidify that statement.
As it turns out though, this concept of pirates and the idea of exploring the edges of wild space in this series were inspired by an unexpected video game — Monkey Island!
"I'm also a big fan of Monkey Island,” co-creator Jon Watts revealed to EW. “That's also classic Lucas. So somewhere between Star Wars pirates and Monkey Island pirates. I think we found our sweet spot.”
Monkey Island is a series of adventure games that were originally produced and published by LucasArts (earlier known as Lucasfilm Games). The games follow the adventure of Guybrush Threepwood as he attempts to become the most notorious pirate in the Caribbean with a plot often involving the mysterious Monkey Island and its secrets.
Funny enough, the Monkey Island games themselves were inspired by Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride and Tim Powers' book On Stranger Tides. So in this case, we've got a theme park attraction and a classic book inspiring a video game which, in turn, helped inspire a television series. Pretty cool to think about.
The Monkey Island series received its latest installment in 2022 with the release of Return to Monkey Island. Developed by Terrible Toybox and published by Devolver Digital, it's a point-and-click adventure game that follows the seafaring adventures of Guybrush Threepwood. Gameplay primarily consists of solving narrative-based puzzles to progress the story. Return to Monkey Island was the first Monkey Island game to be designed by series creator Ron Gilbert since 1991's Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. It's currently playable on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS, and Android.