Star Wars Skeleton Crew, Shonda Rhimes Among CA Tax Credit Winners – Deadline

There’s going to be some serious California financial meat on the bones of Star War series Skeleton Crew.

Hauling in a near record almost $21 million in Golden State tax incentives, the Jude Law starring Disney+ series was among seven shows awarded lucrative credits today. As you can see in the lost below, the 2023 premiering Skeleton Crew was joined by high profile projects like Shonda Rhimes’ White House drama The Residence for Netflix, Robert Downey Jr’s adaption of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Sympathizer for HBO.

Along with the millions handed out in the latest round of the nearly decade long revitalized incentive program, there are two relocating series. Both the about to premiere Rap Sh!t from Issa Rae and HBO Max and Peacock and NBCUniversal’s Killing It were given tax credits in anticipation of moves from Florida and Louisiana respectively. Though never a 100% guarantee, successful candidates like Rap Sh!t are almost certain to receive as yet unannounced second season renewal.

Killing It was renewed for a second season last month.

“Killing It is a show about dreams coming true, so it’s only fitting we would pack up our bags and move to Hollywood,” said EP and co-showrunner Del Treidici on Monday about the award the Craig Robinson-led series scored. “We are thrilled to be making Season 2 in California, which not only has amazing crews and the best facilities but is also where our children are located,” added fellow Killing It EP and showrunner Dan Goor.

Since the revitalized California tax incentives were signed into law by then Governor Jerry Brown almost a decade ago, the focus of the currently $600 million annually program has been job creation and servicing local economies.

In this particular round of allocations, which was accepting applications from June 13 -15, it is expected that the successful candidates will spend about $713 million in total in the state over their respective upcoming seasons. Of that, about $468 million in “qualified” spending, which is defined by the California Film Commission as “wages to below-the-line workers and payments to in-state vendors,” will be paid out. In these trying economic times, the CFC’s data projects that an estimated 1,953 crew, 545 cast, and 21,691 background actors/stand-ins will be employed during their next season of production for each of the seven shows that were awarded tax credits today.

To drill down even more, coming of age-ish drama Skeleton Crew will show the financial Force is strong. The Jon Watts, Chris Ford, Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy, Michelle Rejwan and Colin Wilson EP’d Star Wars show is projected to spend around $136 million in qualified expenditures during its first cycle in the Golden State.

So, if you are planning for the next round of applications.

The next period to apply online for tax credits for small screen projects will be from September 19-21. The next application period for big screen projects will be held July 18-20. The successful candidates will be announced on October 24 and August 22 respectively.