Skeleton Crew's Lightsaber Ties Together Two Strange Parts of Canon
There’s more to Star Wars than movies and TV.
Jod Na Nawood has been the walking mystery at the center of Skeleton Crew since it began. Is he a Jedi? Is he a Sith? All we knew was that he was a Force user, something we saw in practice in Episode 2. This week, in Episode 7, we saw him pull another classic Force user move: wielding a lightsaber.
But this saber isn’t just any run-of-the-mill weapon. It comes from a pirate trove, so surely it has a rich history behind it. But just where does it come from? The answer seemingly comes from two separate — but very recent — additions to Star Wars canon that seem to date back to the High Republic.
Jod’s lightsaber looks distinctly fancy and old.
Jod’s lightsaber is silver with gold and copper accents and an asymmetrical emitter not unlike the one found on Kanan Jarrus’ lightsaber. It’s nearly impossible to find something similarly colored in the Star Wars movies and TV shows, but the Star Wars universe is far bigger than just that. In fact, the two similar sabers in canon come from two of the most obscure corners of canon: Galaxy’s Edge, the Star Wars-themed part of Disney Parks, and the canon Star Wars comics published by Marvel.
In Galaxy’s Edge, there’s an opportunity to create your own lightsaber at Savi’s Workshop, a salvage yard with a hidden lightsaber workshop. Patrons have the opportunity to create a saber from one of four collections of parts: Peace and Justice, Power and Control, Elemental Nature, and Protection and Defense. The Protection and Defense parts, described as bearing “mysterious motifs and inscriptions that reconnect users with the ancient wellspring of the Force,” are silver with gold and silver accents, just like Jod’s saber. In fact, the similarities go even deeper than that: two of the parts have “Force wielder” written on them in ur-Kittât, the Sith rune language seen in Episode 5.
The comic tie refers to one of the strangest recent Star Wars storyline. In 2020, Star Wars #6 revealed Luke Skywalker found a new lightsaber within an old Jedi outpost in between the events of Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
Luke Skywalker discovers his new, albeit temporary, weapon in Star Wars #6.
The outpost and the lightsaber both dated back to the High Republic era, meaning the gold, silver, and copper design is likely indicative of that era. Luke’s yellow saber is an Easter egg in and of itself, as it’s a reference to the original Kenner action figure of Luke Skywalker who inexplicably wielded a plastic yellow lightsaber.
So what does this mean for Skeleton Crew? We still don’t know just how far back the At Attin mission goes, but considering Jod’s saber looks especially similar to two incredibly old and mysterious sabers, it’s likely it’s tied to the High Republic, the peak era of the Jedi depicted in multiple novels, comics, and the Disney+ series The Acolyte.
When Jod refers to “Old Republic credits,” he’s referring to the Jedi Republic shown in the prequels. But if this saber — and the rest of the treasure — dates back to the High Republic, then it’s not just referring to the prequels, but something centuries older.
