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You won’t find many kids a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. At least, not any that aren’t being slaughtered by Anakin Skywalker, retrieved for a bounty, or forced to podrace to escape child slavery. But Star Wars fans young and old have a new hope in Skeleton Crew, a weekly spin-off series from Disney+. Taking cues from recent nostalgia-fueled The Goonies (1985) knock-offs like Stranger Things and It (2017), this story provides a new angle on the Star Wars cinematic universe—one that puts childhood adventure front and center.
While Jedi-fied Jude Law has been the centerpiece of this show’s promotional material, the tweenaged ensemble cast, headed by Ravi Cabot-Conyers as Jedi-obsessed Wim and Ryan Kiera Armstrong as tough-talking Fern, steal the show. Along with technophile KB (Kyriana Kratter) and worrywart Neel (Robert T. Smith), the group of unlikely comrades discover a mysterious door in the woods that transports them far beyond their celestial neighborhood and calls into question everything they thought they knew about their home planet and their galaxy.
Skeleton Crew is one of the very few canonical offshoots set after the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) and the fall of the First Order. Therefore, not only does this series put a unique focus on childhood in the Star Wars universe, but it also offers a glimpse into the political and criminal underworld of its new intergalactic democracy. Seasoned writers Christopher Ford, Jon Watts, and Myung Joh Wesner achieve this masterful world-building with refreshing subtly, charm, and humor. And this time, the punchlines aren’t (exclusively) delivered by a wisecracking android, a now well-worn Star Wars trope.
Whether Skeleton Crew will devolve into redundancy and needless exposition or be canceled before it reaches a satisfying conclusion—both unfortunate fates that have befallen recent Star Wars spin-off series—is anyone’s guess. But whether you’re a longtime fan or completely new to Star Wars, it’s worth sticking around to see. TV-PG, eight 30-45–minute episodes
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