Warning: spoilers are ahead for the first two episodes of Star Wars: The Skeleton Crew, streaming now with a Disney+ subscription.
Star Wars is back on the small screen with Skeleton Crew as the first live-action project since The Acolyte over the summer, and I was so bummed about that show getting cancelled that I wasn't particularly looking forward to the franchise's next entry in the 2024 TV schedule. So, I didn't even watch the trailer for Skeleton Crew when it was released, and my knowledge of the show basically consisted of that Jude Law had been cast and it was going to be about kids.
Still, I'm a fan of the galaxy far, far away going back to VHS tapes in the '90s, so I wasn't going to just not give it a chance when it could turn out to be one of the best Disney+ Star Wars shows. The Disney streamer released the first two episodes on premiere day, and I understand why after watching them. So, let's get into what it was like to watch a Star Wars project completely unspoiled by a trailer and what I was most impressed by after two episodes.
Skeleton Crew Is Just Fun
Look, I love when Star Wars gets dark and/or gritty. Rogue One is by far my favorite of the franchise's movies outside of the original trilogy. I'm usually against even my most beloved characters coming back from certain death (as Force ghosts or otherwise). Even my Rebels-loving heart won't rank Ahsoka over the heaviness of Andor. As a kid, I would rewind the the scene of Han Solo being frozen in carbonite, because what's a space opera without some tragedy?
But gosh dang it all to wholesome heck, Skeleton Crew was just so much fun as soon as Wim, Neel, Fern, and KB were introduced that I felt like I was A New Hope again for the first time. This series really shows Star Wars through the eyes of children more than even the lighter animated series did, and I'm hoping that sense of fun doesn't change in Episode 3 and beyond.
The At Attin Mystery
The biggest mystery of the show so far concerns the planet that the kids come from, which they insist is At Attin, not knowing that that's a place of myth and treasure to the rest of the galaxy. That gradual reveal was fantastic, as far as I'm concerned, not least because something seemed off about the planet from the start. While the Star Wars galaxy is a huge place and not every planet is going to be Tatooine, I was getting vibes from At Attin that ranged from The Giver to Brave New World, without the latter's problematic issues.
It's also nice to have a Star Wars mystery that isn't necessarily going to involve secret Sith or deep Jedi lore or space whales. Is there a perfectly reasonable explanation for At Attin being a myth to everybody except the four kids? Is At Attin an outer space El Dorado? What about Wim's mint condition Old Republic credit? I don't know, but I'm invested in finding out.
Completely New Locations
While I do love some good old-fashioned Tatooine action for the sake of nostalgia and I did nerd out when Lothal was brought into live-action on Ahsoka after being so heavily featured in animation on Star Wars Rebels, Skeleton Crew featuring a planet that hasn't been visited time and again as well as a space port that does not have to be Mos Eisley to be a hive of scum and villainy? Great to see. Unspoiled as I am (and may remain), I can't say with any uncertainty that these kids won't wind up on any terrain that's familiar to franchise fans, but I appreciate the originality so far.
The Nostalgic Vibes
I'm sure that Skeleton Crew will be a great entry into Star Wars for youngsters, and I loved the sense of nostalgia that I took away from the new show's first two episodes. The similarities to Goonies are no coincidence after the classic '80s film's director gave some advice to Skeleton Crew's co-creator, but I also found myself thinking back to A New Hope and Return of the Jedi in particular.
Sure, there were serious moments and fights in those films that are some of the most iconic in cinematic history, but there were also hijinks and shenanigans and Ewoks. Skeleton Crew felt like a tonal throwback to me in the best way, and I finished the second of the two episodes just hoping that this wouldn't be the second show this year to polarize the most vocal members of the fandom.
The Child Actors
Credit where credit's due – while Jude Law may be the big name attached to Skeleton Crew, he didn't turn up until the last few moments of the second episodes to enigmatically use the Force. Unspoiled as I am, do I know who his character is, how long he was in the brig, or why he waited for a foursome of preteens before using the Force to fetch the key? I sure don't, but due to the performances from the kids, I was sold on the show well before the John Williams-loving Jude Law showed up.
The main cast of kids are Ravi Cabot-Conyers as Wim, Ryan Kiera Armstrong as Fern, Kyriana Kratter as KB, and Robert Timothy Smith as Neel, and seeing them bounce of each other reminded me of the first season of Stranger Things. I hadn't seen any of those kids in any projects before their adventures in Hawkins and the Upside Down started, and I didn't have any preconceived notions about the Skeleton Crew kids either. They make a great ensemble after two episodes.
Jude Law The Jedi (Maybe?)
Jedi and Sith aren't always my favorite parts of the extended Star Wars universe, since I don't think that everything needs to involve the Force to be interesting. (See: my love of Rogue One and Andor.) So, I'm not invested in the idea of Jude Law's character as a Jedi (or not). It's possible his character is somebody familiar from Star Wars lore based on clues that I just haven't caught, and I haven't gone looking for any spoilers since watching the first two Skeleton Crew episodes. But Law's character got a solid introduction to set him up as – I assume – the mentor character of the show.
Now, I know there's every chance that Jude Law's character isn't actually a Jedi, as there are more Force users in the galaxy far, far away than the same order as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker, but a mysterious Force-user wearing a long robe with a mystical song playing over the soundtrack makes me think Jedi. Either way, this seems unlikely to be a situation like The Mandalorian where the main characters' stories are slowly but surely absorbed by the larger mythology of the saga.
All in all, I'm a fan of Skeleton Crew after going in unspoiled, and I'm tempted to remain as spoiler-free as possible for the rest of the season and into the 2025 TV schedule. Whether you're with me or not on that, you can count on new episodes of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew releasing on Wednesdays on Disney+.
