Brutus from the Skeleton Crew continues a sad tradition in Star Wars

Brutus is an amazing achievement in character design. As Shestavanen, he basically looks like a badass werewolf, as his race originates with a background character from the famous Cantina series in “A New Hope” (which was basically just a legend of off-the-shelf Halloween mask makeup effects). Rick Baker is used for this scene.) Since the “Skeleton Crew” only shows the character in small doses and mostly in the dark, it’s the combination of the wolf mask and several guns strapped to his chest that does the heavy lifting for Brutus’ design. Far from looking like an off-the-shelf Halloween mask, he looks like a proper space wolf pirate worthy of the cruelty that the name Brutus inspires.

However, the character of Brutus doesn’t actually do much in “Skeleton Crew” and is mostly there to look cool as the leader of a ruthless gang of plundering and seizing pirates. He sings space pirate shanties. Other than that, Brutus is not a good villain; After all, he had been outmaneuvered and outsmarted by a group of kids on several occasions before he was mercilessly killed by his former leader while trapped under a crane.

However, that shouldn’t really be a surprise. In fact, the character of Brutus is part of a long-standing “Star Wars” practice where the franchise introduces a radically interesting and evil character with a murderous determination, who is then killed off almost immediately without doing anything. I’m referring to characters like Boba Fett, Darth Maul, Captain Phasma, Grievous, and Dexter Jettster (come on, you know he’s the duster for sure). Sure, some of these deaths were later retconned, but the point still stands: “Star Wars” is as much about the heroes at the heart of its stories as it is about unique characters who appear briefly, look great, and then look great. .

In fact, in the same episode in which Brutus is killed, his successor appears to have appeared. I’m talking about Neal’s father, Knoll, one of the hottest new Star Wars characters in years (despite the nerd), with those huge fangs and his loving family. If he’s killed, we’ll riot.

The Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Season 1 finale airs on January 14, 2025 at 6 PM PT on Disney+.