The new Star Wars: Skeleton Crew trailer makes genius use of real-world music to set the tone for the upcoming Star Wars TV show. 2024 has been a pretty rough year for the Star Wars fandom, but excitement is building for Christmas – with the upcoming release of a TV show unlike any others. Skeleton Crew will see a bunch of kids launched from an Earth-like planet into the Star Wars galaxy, where they must survive as they try to find their way home.

Lucasfilm’s new Skeleton Crew trailer teases the perfect Christmas fare. It opens with a striking beat that sounds like it’s drawn from the “roboticism” music style, before moving into something much more exotic. The general feel evokes the 1980s, making Skeleton Crew feel like Star Wars‘ attempt to pitch for the Stranger Things audience – young characters, ’80s nostalgia, and the like. But the song is actually far more appropriate than it seems at first glance.

The Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Song Is “Major Tom (Coming Home)” By Peter Schilling

The song is “Major Tom (Coming Home)” by Peter Schilling, a German synthpop musician known for songs with science-fiction themes. This is his most famous hit; it released on March 24, 1983 in German, with an English version released in September that year. This version reached No. 1 in Canada, 4 in South Africa, and a peak of 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. It even reached No. 2 on the US Dance chart.

Thematically, “Major Tom (Coming Home)” is something of a sequel to David Bowie’s “Major Tom” character. It describes an astronaut who leaves Earth orbit and drifts in outer space as he loses radio contact with Earth; the powerful image is used to speak of the emotional distance between the protagonist and the world below him. The Skeleton Crew trailer even riffs on this, with sections that simply translate the traditional lyrics into what seems to be an alien language.

Why “Major Tom (Coming Home)” Is The Perfect Song For Skeleton Crew

Precious little has been known about Star Wars: Skeleton Crew until this trailer drop, which finally confirms the show’s full plot: a group of children discover a crashed Old Republic vessel, and accidentally triggers its launch – heading out into the Star Wars galaxy. Like Major Tom in Schilling’s song, they watch as the sphere of their world vanishes beneath them. They must then dedicate themselves to “Coming Home.” It’s easy to see why Lucasfilm chose such a perfect song for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, evoking the right feel while also matching with the show’s themes.