’Children who accidentally become pirates' is probably not the dreamStar Warsproject for many fans who are keen to see old favourites and deep cuts return in droves to explain the origins of a throwaway line in A New Hope. But after checking out the first three episodes of Skeleton Crew, the upcoming eight episode Star WarsDisney Plusseries, it feels like this is the new hope Star Wars needs, if not the New Hope it wants.
The gist of the story is a simple coming of age adventure, and it’s from this simplicity that the characters shine. Four young teens sneak out after being grounded to discover what they think is an old Jedi temple in the woods. It turns out to be a long forgotten, buried spaceship once used by a legendary pirate crew.
When the kids turn it on, they are shot through hyperspace to a pirate cove under the care of the ship’s first mate and only surviving crew member, a very rusty droid named SM 33. They have no way to get home, and since their home planet is a mythical treasure realm as far as these pirates on the other side of the galaxy are concerned, nobody will help them either.
Skeleton Crew Shows A New Side Of Star Wars
Skeleton Crew feels less like Star Wars than it does a show that would have come out in the ’80s to cash in on Star Wars. There are the typical touchstones - space flight, weird aliens, talking droids, but it feels free of a lot of other trappings from a galaxy far, far away. It isn’t attempting to fit into any established canon, merely detailing a fantastic adventure that happens to have the Star Wars name. It’s a breath of fresh air for the franchise at a time when it needs one.
That’s not to say it disrespects or ignores Star Wars traditions, however. There’s even a Jedi played by Jude Law, who arrives at the end of the second episode. Quick witted and charming, though often roguishly surly, he’s a classic vagabond hero. There’s also a kid who longs to be a Jedi, lots of interplanetary red tape, and a blast through hyperspace. It’s Star Wars, alright.
But it seems interested in the humdrum, and that gives it a unique flavour. Where other Star Wars sagas are concerned about what Boba Fett was doing off screen or where Obi-Wan got his sandy brown cape, Skeleton Crew is more curious about the world. It takes us to a new planet very similar to Earth with its suburban streets neatly laid out in a row. It shows us what school is like, and most of the droids featured are dull pencil pushers who act as minor roadblocks rather than toy-selling beepboop mascots. It all feels a lot more real.
The Authenticity Comes From The Young Cast
There has been criticism from this similarity to Earth, but that feels like the point. Skeleton Crew is built around kids - the four leads are all children, none of whom are famous names, and the bulk of the scenes feature very few adults. It’s more of a ‘kids of all ages’ deal than a Bluey ‘for children but no one will know if you watch it too’ vibe, but this is clearly designed to meet kids on their level and giving the characters classic problems like being grounded, failing tests, and being ignored by their parents is the best way to do that.
It’s this focus on kids that also gives Skeleton Crew its classic feel. The ’80s were dominated by these sorts of kid adventures that featured real children with real dynamics, but felt relatable to broad audiences. Stand By Me, The Goonies, The Never-Ending Story, and Adventures in Babysitting are just a handful of examples in this extremely rich (yet short lived) genre that Skeleton Crew is harking back to.
The only real analogue today isStranger Things, which is so tied to this golden era it’s set during it as a period piece, and it has taken them so long to make their feature-length episodes that the cast are now in their 20s, some married, and amongst the most famous actors in the world. If you don’t remember The Goonies, then think of Skeleton Crew as the first season of Stranger Things, but in space.
Skeleton Crew May Still Need To Convince Audiences
These kids each give earnest performances, probably aided by the fact they’re trusted to just be kids bickering a lot of the time. The characters have personalities that grow on you because they’re given time to. Scenes feel a lot less choppy than the more action-heavy Star Wars adventures, allowing the characters to feel connected to the world and not passengers there to deliver lore, references, or explain why audiences should care about some niche callback the writers very cleverly wedged in. Though the adults (the aforementioned Law, Kerry Condon, Nick Frost as the voice of SM 33) play their part, this series belongs to the kids and they repay that trust with believable and likeable performances.
Skeleton Crew also brings the return of a good old fashioned villain. Though the first two episodes are mostly the kids dealing with a string of issues - missing the bus, failing a test, being grounded, the whole spaceship blasting them across hyperspace leaving them terrified they’ll never see their family again thing - they soon say too much to a fearsome pirate lord, and are left to deal with the consequences.
I’m not sure from the not-quite-half batch of episodes I’ve seen whether this is will be the defining issue of Skeleton Crew or if (in the tradition of The Goonies and Stand By Me), the gang will be in near constant motion, always getting into scrapes while their true goal of getting home (a little more noble than finding gold or poking a dead body with a stick) remains just out of reach.
I was interested in The Acolyte for very different reasons - it seemed to be pulling the old trick in a new way. Skeleton Crew offers a completely different trick, and I’m curious how audiences will respond. But I know I’ll be sticking with it when Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: Skeleton Crew launches on Tuesday, December 3, exclusively on Disney Plus.
