Here at IGN we occasionally like to showcase something from geekdom’s rich history — a pop-culture Time Capsule, if you will, that gives us a peek in to the past, perhaps providing a new appreciation for previous projects.
If you’d like, please check out the past few Time Capsules:
- Why Tim Burton wanted an ‘average’ Batman in Michael Keaton
- That time HBO and Tom Hanks made Alexander Hamilton the bad guy
- Watch how the original X-Men fight scenes were created 20 years later
- Could a Batman Forever Director’s Cut restore this giant dream bat deleted scene?
- Remember when Will Forte, as MacGruber, wrestled a match in WWE?
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This past week marked 15 years since young Will Stronghold discovered he not only had superpowers, but he’d inherited abilities from both his father, alpha-supe The Commander, and his mother, soaring siren Jetstream. And if that sentence means nothing to you then you need to watch Sky High abso-freakin-now.
Hey, parents. Watch Sky High with your kids! Hey, non-parents. Watch Sky High by your disposable income-having selves! Lovingly crafted during the initial superhero movie boom, but before the MCU burst onto the scene, 2005’s Sky High was a clever take on the world of capes, imagining a school that superhero parents send their teens to in order to train them for future adventures as a hero or – perish the thought – a sidekick (aka “hero support”).
Available to stream now on Disney+, and with rumblings of a possible sequel or sequel series headed to the platform, Sky High featured a marvelous mix of stars – from Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston (who, sadly, recently passed) to Bruce Campbell, Kids in the Halls’ Kevin McDonald and Dave Foley, and O.G. Wonder Woman Lynda Carter as the principal.
But not only that, as you’ll see in this extensive behind-the-scenes video, Sky High featured several future players as well, like The Flash’s Danielle Panabaker, The Expanse’s Steven Strait, The Knick’s Michael Angarano, Community’s Jim Rash, Succession’s Nicholas Braun, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (who became somewhat of an insta-star afterwards)…
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Yes, new-to-school Will (Angarano) is the offspring of the world’s two most-popular superheroes: Kurt Russell’s Commander and Kelly Preston’s Jetstream (who run a real estate business as married alter-egos Steve and Josie). Will feels the pressure of his lineage every day, especially considering that he…hasn’t shown any signs of superpowers yet. Could he be a genetic anomaly, where traits skip a generation, and therefore a huge disappointment to all? And how will he deal with his school nemesis Warren Peace (Strait) or popular cheerleader Gwen Grayson (Winstead), who seems to have eyes for him? To get all these answers and more, you’ll have to travel high up into the sky.
Another fun Sky High tidbit, aside from the “no dating” rule for the teens revealed in the video above, is that the soundtrack is comprised of wall-to-wall ’80s covers. Yes, before the cover industry was taken over by slowed-down, calm, breathy versions of songs, Sky High, possibly to evoke an updated John Hughes feel, featured new versions of old tracks by Tears for Fears, Devo, Modern English, The Smiths, The Go-Gos, Talking Heads, and more. So if you love movies where most of the stars are way too young to know what music is being played, Sky High just checked another box off your very weird list! Perfect for an IGN Time Capsule look-back!
Sky High can be streamed on Disney+.
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Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.
Source: IGN.com Celebrate Sky High's 15th Anniversary With This Great Making of Video