As a high schooler in Fountain, 15 miles south of Colorado Springs, Jon Watts would borrow his brother-in-law’s video camera every weekend to make silly films with his friends. Instead of writing the essays that had been assigned for homework, he’d turn in video versions.

Fast-forward nearly 30 years, and Watts, 43, is one of the most in-demand filmmakers in Hollywood. He directed all three movies in the most recent Spider-Man reboot, directed George Clooney and Brad Pitt in this past fall’s Wolfs, and co-created, co-wrote, and directed a new Star Wars series starring Jude Law, which premieres on Disney+ on December 3.

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Ahead of the release of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew—which revolves around four kids who stumble upon a lost Jedi temple that transports them to a galaxy far, far away—5280 spoke with Watts about joining the multibillion-dollar sci-fi franchise, his filmmaking journey, and how Colorado continues to inspire his work.

Editor’s note: The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

5280: How has being from Colorado impacted your vision as a director?
Jon Watts: My first film, [2015’s] Cop Car, is a pretty realistic reflection of what growing up in Fountain was like—up until the part where the kids are menaced by Kevin Bacon’s character. My friends and I would just walk out in those fields and hope that we’d stumble across some sort of adventure. Literally, those exact fields: The house where Kevin Bacon lives in the movie is directly across the street from where I grew up.

I also always think about nature and the weather [in my films]. For example, Wolfs is set over the course of one night, and it’s snowing. It accumulates throughout the movie. If I hadn’t grown up in Colorado, I would not have thought so much about the quality and texture of the snow. My imagination was formed by the Rocky Mountains: the way the clouds roll over the peaks and storms pass over the high plains; how the light changes as the sun goes behind clouds.

Were you a big Star Wars fan?
I was the AV kid in school, and the band did a John Williams medley. One of my jobs, in addition to playing the saxophone, was to make a video edit of the medley. So there are certain moments from Star Wars that I’ve watched over and over and over. My co-creator Christopher Ford is the true Star Wars expert. I’m a fan, but he grew up near Skywalker Ranch [in California]. Between the two of us, I think we have a really good balance on how to tackle Star Wars.

You joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe when you directed the latest Spider-Man trilogy, and now you’re venturing into Star Wars. How do you make something that’s unique but also fits into these massive franchises?
With Skeleton Crew, it was about finding a new point of view to tell a Star Wars story from. I just thought: What’s it like to be 10 or 11 years old and see something that blows your mind? I was about that old the first time I went to New York. I remember being a kid from Fountain and suddenly being surrounded by skyscrapers and thinking, What is this place? This is amazing.

[The Skeleton Crew characters have] grown up in a really sheltered place. It was about throwing those 10-year-olds, who aren’t aware of the Star Wars galaxy, into a world that they don’t completely understand. So we had to look at this world that we know and love through a fresh set of eyes. That’s what was exciting to me.

Watch Star Wars: Skeleton Crew on Disney+, beginning December 3, 2004.