Brutus is an incredible feat of character design. As a skunk, he basically looks like a werewolf, and his race comes from a background character from the famous cantina sequence in A New Hope (which itself was basically just a frivolous Halloween mask effects legend Rick Baker used for that scene). Since Skeleton Crew only really shows the character in small doses and mostly in darkness, the combination of the wolf mask and the many guns strapped to his chest do the heavy lifting for Brutus' design. Far from looking like a Halloween mask, he appears to be a true alien wolf pirate worthy of the ferocity that the name Brutus inspires.

However, Brutus' character doesn't really do much in Skeleton Crew and mostly exists to look cool as the leader of a ruthless band of pirates that rob, pillage and sings space pirate huts. Otherwise, Brutus is not a very good villain; after all, he is outmaneuvered and outsmarted by a bunch of kids on several occasions before being mercilessly killed by his former captain while trapped under a crane.

However, that shouldn't really come as a surprise. In fact, the character of Brutus is part of a long-standing Star Wars practice where the franchise introduces a radically angry and intriguing character with a murderous design, who is then almost immediately killed without doing anything. I mean characters like Boba Fett, Darth Maul, Captain Phasma, Grievous and Dexter Jetster (come on, you know he definitely bit the dust). Granted, some of these deaths were later undone, but the point still stands, Star Wars is as much about the heroes at the heart of its stories as it is about the one-off characters who appear briefly, look awesome, and then wam. .

In fact, in the same episode where Brutus is killed, his successor appears to have appeared. I'm talking about Neal's dad, Knoll, one of the hottest new Star Wars characters in years (Kimmyr aside), with those huge teeth and his loving family. If he is killed, we protest.

The Season 1 finale of Star Wars: The Skeleton Crew will air on January 14, 2025 at 6pm PST on Disney+.