Skeleton Crew Has An Old-School Character Hiding In Plain Sight
A Jack of all trades.
Star Wars loves a mystery man. From Ben Kenobi revealing himself as Obi-Wan Kenobi in A New Hope to Qimir dropping the bomb about secretly being a Sith lord in The Acolyte, a character with murky intentions is sure to get audiences invested. In Skeleton Crew, the latest Star Wars series, that role is filled by Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law), the Force-sensitive space pirate who assists four kids from At Attin on their quest to return home.
But there’s more to Jod than meets the eye. He uses the Force, but he never says he’s a Jedi — and it’s looking like he may even be a Sith. He says his name is Jod, but he definitely used to go by Captain Silvo. Now we know another Jod alter ego, and it has connections to Star Wars’ earliest days.
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Crimson Jack aka Redbeard in Star Wars #7, published October 1977.
Comicbook.com revealed that Jod also goes by the name “Crimson Jack,” a name that’s almost 50 years old. Jack, nicknamed “Redbeard” by Han Solo, is a classic space pirate. In his first-ever appearance, in the October 1977 comic book Star Wars #7, Jack and his sidekick Jolli board the Millennium Falcon and steal a reward Han and Chewbacca just collected from Jabba the Hutt (this would be before Han got on Jabba’s bad side in future movies).
In a future appearance, Jack kidnaps Han, Chewie, and Princess Leia, but they convince him that his band of pirates are needed to track down a mysterious treasure in the Drexel system. In reality, the Drexel system only contained a lost Luke Skywalker, but the pirates took the trio exactly where they needed to go. When Jack learns about Solo’s lie, the two fight, and Solo slays Jack.
But Crimson Jack isn’t just a musty old character from the old, non-canon Legends timeline; he also appeared in Star Wars: Halcyon Legacy, a 2022 comic book miniseries tied into the now-defunct Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser immersive hotel at Disney World. In that five-issue run, Jack — looking almost identical to his Legends form — hijacks the ship to search for a First Order spy. That story was set between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, decades after Skeleton Crew.
Crimson Jack’s updated look in Halcyon Legacy #5, published in August 2022.
So what does Jod using this name mean? It definitely tells us that he’s a shadier guy than we first thought, but it also could mean he — or at least his name — survives for a few more decades. Perhaps “Crimson Jack” is like The Princess Bride’s Dread Pirate Roberts, a name shared by a long line of pirates.
Maybe this alias is just an Easter Egg for eagle-eyed fans, but it could be establishing one of the galaxy’s most feared space pirates in the galaxy, regardless of whether Jod is his true identity. Pirates work by instilling fear, and if just a name can do that, then Crimson Jack, whoever he is, is already in business.
