Once the kids find themselves lost in space, Skeleton Crew takes flight.
Star Wars fans know all too well that there’s been a great disturbance in the Force lately when it comes to Disney+‘s slate of live action originals. While the first seasons of The Mandalorian and Andor dazzled critics, more recent installments have left audiences colder than the ice planet Hoth. The Acolyte failed to nab a second season order, leaving Leslye Headland’s inventive, queer-coded tale of the fracturing Old Republic unfinished. Ahsoka seemed only designed for hardcore obsessives of Dave Filoni’s animated offerings and the less said about the narcoleptic hero of The Book of Boba Fett, the better. So where does that leave Disney+’s latest live action outing, the family-friendly Star Wars: Skeleton Crew? In the unenviable position of having to win back a once loyal fandom with a wholly original concept for the franchise.
Although Skeleton Crew gets off to a bumpy start, the new Star Wars series truly launches at the end of the first episode, when four misfit kids find themselves hurtling through “the Barrier” that separates their picture perfect suburban planet from the rest of the wider universe. The kids are overwhelmed by a mix of fear, panic, and then wonder. “What are those?” “I think they’re…uh, planets.” One girl shakes her head and says, “They’re stars.” From there, Skeleton Crew ceases to feel like something we’ve all seen before and truly begins to channel the spirit of adventure that intoxicated us when we first saw Star Wars.
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew was created by Jon Watts and Christopher Ford, the same team that brought Tom Holland’s version of Spider-Man swinging into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. From the moment the project was first announced, it was pitched as a “coming-of-age” story, reminiscent of the glory days of Amblin Entertainment. A group of kids would find themselves lost in space in the Star Wars universe with only a mysterious Jedi named Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law) to guide them. After screening the first three episodes of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, we can confirm that’s exactly what that show is, but with one or two enticing twists…
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew takes place in the early years of the New Republic, but its initial focus is on the strangest corner of the Star Wars universe yet: suburbia. On the new (to lore) planet At Attin, residents live in cookie cutter homes that open onto manicured green lawns. Latchkey kid Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers) gets a heap of credits for lunch money at the beginning of his father’s busy workweek, while rebellious rich girl Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) reprograms her housekeeper droid to lie to her well-to-do mother (Kerry Condon).
