TAGGED AS: Disney, Star Wars, streaming, TV
When word of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew first emerged from Disney and Lucasfilm, it was codenamed “Grammar Rodeo” in reference to The Simpsons episode in which Bart, Milhouse, Nelson, and Martin rent a car to go to a long-closed world’s fair. Their adventure exploded onto the scene with mixed results, but a big heart. Some months later, “Grammar Rodeo” received its proper title and a key creative team: executive producers Christopher Ford and Jon Watts. The pair, who previously worked together as writer and director of Spider-Man: Homecoming, are new to the Star Wars creative ensemble, and whenever they appeared prior to production, they emphasized two things about their show: a) It’s about kids, but not necessarily for kids, and b) it would make liberal use of the “Amblin style” — the visual language of Steven Spielberg’s late 1970s and 1980s films.
So, with the series debuting on December 2, you might wonder just how those things translate to an actual series. Luckily, Rotten Tomatoes had a chance to watch the first few episodes and we can give you an idea of what to expect when you watch Skeleton Crew.
(Photo by Matt Kennedy/©Lucasfilm Ltd.)
Like Stranger Things before it, Skeleton Crew evokes a lot of memories for those who were young children in the ‘80s. But unlike that show’s use of cultural touchstones like Ghostbusters and Dungeons & Dragons, the series employs the sort of play children engaged in after watching a Star Wars movie. Make-believe lightsaber duels and even the appearance of something resembling a Kenner action figure will immediately feel familiar to anyone who remembers when all we had to build out our Star Wars fantasies was an empty wrapping paper roll and a hand-me-down Walrus Man.
We suspect Ford and Watts vividly recall that time, too.
The overall effect, while certainly nostalgic, seems to serve a thematic point. Like the kids in The Goonies or Explorers, each is experiencing a late-tween/early-adolescent angst they are trying to escape. For lead character Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), Star Wars’ first true latch-key kid, that means getting obsessed with legends of the Jedi. For underachieving overachiever Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), it might mean souping up an anti-grav bike to race against the mean kid at school. Fern’s friend KB (Kyriana Kratter) deals with it all by being a literal techhead. And for Neel (Robert Timothy Smith), the show’s key alien character, it means being a diligent student and child.
(Photo by Matt Kennedy/©Lucasfilm Ltd.)
None or them are aware of this archetypal journey, of course, which brings us back to the creators’ stated intention to make a show about kids, but not necessarily for them. Said archetypes will hit stronger for those who grew up in the 20th Century, but it should cross over to younger generations, as the adolescent yearning for something greater than the status quo is pretty universal.
Additionally, the show is a little more violent and intense than you might expect for a series with such a young cast. Then again, later seasons of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and programs like Avatar: The Last Airbender also proved to be sophisticated children’s shows that ultimately appealed to viewers who had left adolescence far behind.
(Photo by Matt Kennedy/©Lucasfilm Ltd.)
While most live-action Star Wars tales concern themselves with big events, the opening episode of Skeleton Crew offers a glimpse of the quieter, more domestic side of the galaxy. The new world — which has a name that we suspect is spelled “At-Atan” — is very much a middle-class American suburb of the late ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s as filtered through Star Wars. It is perhaps here that the most obvious Amblin influence will be felt. Wim and Neel’s neighborhood quite closely resembles the San Fernando Valley subdivision where E.T.: The Extraterrestrial’s Elliott (Henry Thomas) and his family lived.
The contrast between the Valley in space and worlds like Tatooine, Nevarro, or other populated planets visited across the Star Wars universe is part of the point. Starting on a world of middle-class prosperity that seemingly recovered from the Galactic Civil War quicker than most reflects the living situations many of the initial Star Wars fans hailed from. Although poverty and inequality were also just down the block in any 1980s suburb, presenting a Star Wars world this way feels like a step forward for the new generation of Star Wars creators. Yes, they are still processing their memories of playing with the toys in places like Tujunga (where E.T. was filmed), the Arizona suburbs Spielberg recreated in The Fablemans, or any neighborhood 30 minutes from a major US metro area at the time, but that may be a necessary step to get to the next evolution of storytelling in this particular galaxy.
But in the context of the series, it also serves as a place for the kids to return, once their adventure truly begins. Of course, the incipient teen angst means the show also recognizes Spielberg’s own mixed feelings about those mid-century housing developments. Such communities simultaneously offer the illusion of a tranquil childhood, but also smooth over family strife or forgotten horrors (see: the original Poltergeist). Like the angst itself, we can’t say if this will be a stated in the text of Skeleton Crew, but even if the kids only ever view that vision of a 20th Century middle-class paradise as “boring,” it is still a comment on what once existed for the seminal generation of Star Wars fans.
(Photo by ©Lucasfilm Ltd.)
Skeleton Crew is set in the time period after Return of the Jedi — the same era as The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka. It’s unclear when the series occurs in relationship to the others, although the presence of Vane (Marti Matulis) from several third-season Mandalorian episodes suggests Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Din Grogu are already traveling together as the Clan of Two. But beyond that one minor character crossover, it appears the series will concern itself with different aspects of the galaxy, far from the tumult brewing on the Outer Rim.
That means, for the first time in modern Star Wars television, that the New Republic is an unambiguous ally. Where the other shows, even Ahsoka, viewed the central government as a flawed and easily corruptible thing, the few adults glimpsed in Skeleton Crew in its initial episodes are cheerful advocates for the Republic.
Now, it is possible that positivity will eventually reveal a hidden dark side, of course. The conflict between perceptive kids and oblivious adults is a mainstay of ‘80s cinema, after all. But the opportunity to depict a prosperous world benefiting from restored democracy has value, too.
(Photo by ©Lucasfilm Ltd.)
It remains to be seen how much time the show will have to examine those ideas, though, as the opening episodes also make clear a new era of piracy is taking root, even as the Republic aims to make the spaceways safer. As long time Star Wars fans know, that ambition is as foolhardy as trying to stamp out organized crime or tame the Outer Rim. Exploring the nature of space piracy may prove to be the program’s major contribution to the overall lore.
We suspect the kids will come to understand the complexity of the galaxy, though, as their adventure continues and they team up with Jude Law’s Jod Na Nawood. We’d love to say more about him, but his every scene in the first two episodes constitutes some form of spoiler.
(Photo by ©Lucasfilm Ltd.)
We also don’t want to spoil the nature of Skeleton Crew’s major mystery. We will say it is very compelling. Or, more specifically, learning the why of it may keep older viewers engaged. It’s a fairly new mystery for Star Wars, although some watchers may recognize an echo of it from an earlier Star Wars project, and since it isn’t about secret family or a secret identity, it will feel fresher than some of the other recent mysteries in Star Wars shows.
And, we admit, it’s always possible the secret family and secret identity mysteries may still emerge as the series wears on. This is still Star Wars, after all.
But to answer one question you may have about the show when you sit down to watch it: Yes, that is Jaleel White as one of the pirates. His participation in the program was confirmed in September, although rumors about him abounded for over a year. Also, keep an eye on the closing credits, as there are some other surprising names lending their talents to the production.
Additionally, episode runtimes will vary, as is now customary for Star Wars shows. Episode 1, for example, runs around 45 minutes, while episode 2 is just 27 minutes.
(Photo by Matt Kennedy/©Lucasfilm Ltd.)
Beyond the suburban sprawl of the children’s homeworld, Skeleton Crew features other touchstones of Spielberg’s ‘80s output. Note every camera track-in, a staple of the director’s film grammar for most of the 20th Century. The show also makes use of a technique he uses far less frequently these days: awestruck people looking up at wonderful things (see: Close Encounters of the Third Kind).
Beyond visual cues, series composer Mick Giacchino runs a clinic on the subtle differences between John Williams’ music for Star Wars and Spielberg’s films. The flourishes are different. The notes of excitement less refined than in films like E.T. The overall effect in Giacchino’s hands is one of child-like wonder versus the more operatic qualities of Williams’ Star Wars scores. And while Giacchino never directly quotes any Williams theme (at least in the first two episodes), he finds a way to recreate the soundscape in his own style while still providing those aspects of wonder, opera, awe, and excitement that Williams gave to the ‘80s as a whole.
And like Giacchino finding ways to incorporate his own style into the mix, Skeleton Crew is not entirely a pastiche of any of its most obvious touchstones. Ford and Watts seem aware of the perils in reconstituting beloved shots, lines, or scenes just for the sake of audience recognition. In fact, we’re fairly certain none of the well-known Star Wars catchphrases appear in the first two episodes, though we’ll admit “May the Force be with you” is such a part of the fabric that we may have missed it if it was uttered.
(Photo by ©Lucasfilm Ltd.)
Another fresh aspect of the show is all-new (so far) ship design. The one the kids find that starts their adventure does not resemble any previously featured ship like the Millennium Falcon or Ahoksa’s (Rosario Dawson) super-slick T-6 Jedi shuttle. A featured pirate ship goes for a more vertical approach than typical for Star Wars ship designs. It may not be as stylish as Dryden Vos’s (Paul Bettany) ship from Solo: A Star Wars Story, but that may also be part of the point.
Which leads to one last thing to expect from Skeleton Crew: intentionality. The choices on display so far feel purposeful, even if just for thematic reasons, metatextual comment, or to generate a certain atmosphere. Whether or not those choices work in the long run will depend on how the story plays out in the subsequent six episodes and what the individual viewers want from Star Wars. And since that perception is as varied as the sorts of stories told in the Star Wars galaxy, we expect opinions to be vast.
The first two episodes of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew: Season 1 (2024) premiere on Disney+ on December 2, 2024.
