Lucasfilm recently revealed a proper first look at Skeleton Crew, with several photos of the upcoming show’s main cast and interviews offering more details. Skeleton Crew will be the next live-action Star Wars series for Disney+ from Spider-Man director Jon Watts and writer Christoper Ford. The project will also feature episodes helmed by notable directors like The Daniels, David Lowery, Jake Schreier, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Lee Isaac Chung.
Skeleton Crew will debut on December 3rd and take Star Wars back to the time of The Mandalorian during its first season. Skeleton Crew follows The Acolyte in release, a series that has its fans, but also those who disliked it. The reaction to The Acolyte was mostly positive, but the positive reaction wasn’t overwhelming. Here’s why Skeleton Crew could be the perfect next series for Star Wars with a formula that has led to strong results in the franchise’s past and something it could use once again.
The Series Is Another Original Story With New Characters
Like The Acolyte, Skeleton Crew will introduce a new cast of characters instead of continuing the story of a familiar face like Luke Skywalker or Ahsoka Tano. Jude Law will play a character named Jod Na Nawood, who’s a Force user and leads the cast alongside several child actors: Ravi Cabot-Conyers (Wim), Kyriana Kratter (KB), Robert Timothy Smith (Neel) and Ryan Kiera Armstrong (Fern). Skeleton Crew is another series that pushes the boundaries of the franchise by expanding the galaxy with new characters.
Lucasfilm needs to continue telling original stories in the universe with brand-new characters who don’t have a ton of history tied to them, which makes it hard to please audiences. New characters also mean new types and more representation that allows the franchise to speak to more groups of people. The Mandalorian has been the most successful project at bringing in new characters, with Din Djarin and Grogu becoming just as iconic as those who have come before them now. Skeleton Crew will be the next chapter of this approach, and it breathes new life into Star Wars and moves it forward, making it an exciting entry.
It Will Focus on Younger Characters
A new and exciting wrinkle to Skeleton Crew is that it will be the first live-action project to follow younger characters. George Lucas has always said the franchise targeted kids, yet major stories never featured them in major roles outside The Phantom Menace and The Clone Wars.Skeleton Crew will focus on this, which has a lot of potential, especially with an Amblin aesthetic that feels like a perfect match for Star Wars.
“I can’t wait for people to see this thing. It’s got a lot of Jon Watts in it, and anyone who’s a fan of what Jon Watts does – he’s very childlike in a beautiful way, in the way that he tells stories, and how he captures a childlike perspective in things. He brings that beautiful perspective to this story of young people in the Star Wars universe.” — Director Lee Isaac Chung on Skeleton Crew .
Watts’ involvement adds another layer to this, given how well he captured the tone of John Hughes’ films in his Spider-Man trilogy. It feels longer overdue for a Star Wars series to follow kids, and the Stranger Things model proved it can work well and still bring in a huge audience old and young. Skeleton Crew’s unique angle is an element Star Wars needs to do to attract a new generation of fans to keep the franchise going for years to come.
Skeleton Crew Won’t Follow the Jedi
The Acolyte was Lucasfilm’s most Jedi-centric project yet, with its High Republic setting, and Ahsoka also heavily leaned into the Force. While Skeleton Crew will feature a Force-sensitive character, but it will still take viewers back to a time with few Jedi and that’s a good thing after the recent shows Lucasfilm has released. Star Wars is more than just the Jedi and Sith, and The Mandalorian proved this by adding its mythos just as rich as the Force-sensitive groups.
Andor also showed that a narrative diving deep into the interworking of the Empire and Rebel Alliance can deliver some of Star Wars’ most complex storytelling to date. Skeleton Crew gives Lucasfilm another chance at adding more layers to Star Wars, showcasing this with a group of kids and their perspective of the galaxy as it’s being rebuilt following a major war.
Star Wars Could Use More Adventure
The Acolyte played with a new genre for Star Wars by adopting the mystery thriller. Like Marvel and DC, Star Wars can also be versatile and explore different tones to keep stories fresh at a time when more content is produced than ever before. However, a good old-fashioned Star Wars adventure is necessary sporadically. Since Samurai films inspired Ahoska and The Acolyte with mystery thrillers, it’s time for Star Wars to give audiences that pure adventure that founded the franchise.
Skeleton Crew promises to take Star Warsback to that New Hope and Force Awakens feel with a coming-of-age story, taking characters to new worlds and encountering situations that will be informative. The show’s synopsis teases that “when four kids make a mysterious discovery on their seemingly safe home planet, they get lost in a strange and dangerous galaxy. Finding their way home, meeting unlikely allies and enemies will be a greater adventure than they ever imagined.” Star Wars stories work very well when it offers audiences escape and Skeleton Crew aims to recreate that feeling from A New Hope that sparked the imagination of so many.
Skeleton Crewis a Star Wars project that’s flying under the radar a little bit, yet marketing on the series is bound to pick up soon leading up to its December release date. So far, it sounds like Skeleton Crew will bring a good mix of adding more to the Star Wars canon while taking it back to its roots.
While it’s easy to expect a ton of controversy with each Star Wars project, shows like The Mandalorian and The Acolyte feature far less than the others. Skeleton Crew is a Star Wars project that can take it to new heights with childlike wonder, which makes a film like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial an all-time classic. A Star Wars series following past Amblin films could prove to be the ultimate match and remind fans why they fell in love with the franchise, to begin with while bringing in new fans.