Skeleton Crew does not connect itself with the wider Star Wars universe through splashy cameo, but it brings with it many on connections and notifications in the rest of the galaxy far, far away in a litany of offhand notes and Easter eggs. But a sneaky Easter egg apparently cuts deeper than fans expected.

Early on Skeleton Crew the audience and its young heroes alike are swept up in the pirate cove of Port Borgo, surrounded by an entire flotilla of fascinating sights. Star Wars ships. But one in particular stood out: a thin, white ship for a while saw as THE Onyx Cinder went to the port. Some fans point to the design as coming from a classic piece of Star Wars concept art: Colin Cantwell’s early design for the pirate ship that would eventually become the Millennium Falcon. Cantwell’s thin, narrow design would eventually be restored and repurposed to Tantive IV blockade runner, but seems to have returned Star Wars proceeding through Skeleton Crewit’s the same how Andorra canonized his early Star Destroyer design as the Cantwell-class Arrestor cruiser.

However, it turned out that the ship was not SOMEWHAT said Cantwell. Instead, it’s a mashup of that design with a similar-looking Eagle Lander from the Gerry Anderson sci-fi classic Space: 1999. Cantwell’s original design for the ship was actually moved due to its perceived similarity to the Eagle, so the mashup was a perfect fit—and the “Millennium Eagle” was brought to life by former ILM modeler and VFX supervisor Bill George, as part of a series imagination a hypothetical show celebrating life-size models of classic sci-fi ships and props.

“I always liked the story of how the design of the Pirate Ship changed because it felt so much like the Eagle from Space: 1999,” George recently said ColinCantwell.coma site recently established by the late artist’s friends and family to celebrate his work. “My original concept was to make a mash-up of two ships. That’s not difficult because they have the same proportions.”

George confirmed that his hybrid design did it Skeleton Crewafter former colleagues at ILM approached him and asked if they could scan the model for use in a galaxy far, far away. “No one ever told me who was behind the request,” added George, “but when I was asked, I jumped at the chance! I have no idea, but once a model is made, they tend to appear in other media. I’m just glad it made it into the background as a ‘cameo’ appearance.

The ship has not yet been directly identified inside Star Wars‘ universe, so time will tell if the Millennium Eagle find a name as vulgar as the portmanteau title, or if, like the Arrestor’s cruiser, it is distinguished by a tribute to Cantwell and George in some other way. But at least a fun little twist on Star Wars‘ design history goes back to the galaxy far, far away on a long tour—an idea nearly 50 years in the making.

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