‘The Skeleton Crew’ Just Wants an Adventure

They didn’t know there would be so many stars.

I can’t keep up with all the Star Wars shows on Disney+. At this point, I can’t even keep up with all the Marvel shows. But I’m always on the lookout for a good one. It’s like a treasure hunt.

The Skeleton Crew has turned up some gold. Created by Christopher Ford and Jon Watts, it’s a kid-centric Star Wars series that also appeals to adults. The show simply sets out to have a grand adventure, and it succeeds admirably. The more I think about it, the more I like it.

(Spoilers ahead for the first few episodes, but I’ll keep it vague after that.)

Four young adolescents live on a world called At Attin, which is basically Planet Suburbia. It’s safe, peaceful, and so very boring. Much like Luke Skywalker at the start of Star Wars, these kids yearn for more, two of them in particular.

Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers) is an imaginative boy who craves adventure. Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) acts tougher than she is, and she laments how there’s nothing to do on this world.

When Wim misses the school bus—and therefore misses an assessment that will define his future career—he stumbles upon what he believes to be a Jedi temple, which sparks his easily excitable imagination. He drags his best friend there, a kind-hearted elephantine boy named Neel (Robert Timothy Smith), and Fern drags her best friend there, a smart bionic girl named KB (Kyriana Kratter).

This quartet forms a balanced cast with the right amount of friction: two boys and two girls, and two pairs of best friends, neither of which is friends with the other pair. The girls are more mature than the boys, but none of them are especially mature.

The kids are indeed kids. They have their moments of cleverness, but they’re not precocious super-children. They’re not smarter than the adults. Youth and inexperience result in weaknesses and vulnerabilities. They’re in over their heads, which keeps the stakes high.

The Jedi temple is, of course, not a Jedi temple, because why would a random boy from the suburbs even know what one would look like? It’s a starship—specifically, a pirate starship called the Onyx Cinder.

After the kids get trapped inside, a blinking button tempts Wim. Naturally, he pushes it, and the ship launches. These sheltered kids leave their home planet for the first time, without any of their parents to guide them. Due to a protective barrier around their world, they’ve never even seen stars until now.

“I didn’t know there would be so many,” KB says as the kids gaze out at the immense universe.

Exiting their planet’s atmosphere is like stepping through the wardrobe and entering Narnia—an action-packed outer space Narnia.

Throughout these eight episodes, the kids learn just how vast—and dangerous—the galaxy can be. Everything is new territory for them. It’s all exotic and wondrous, but also scary and deadly, pushing each of these young travelers to their breaking point.

And just as the vast galaxy is wondrous to them, their boring home planet seems wondrous to everyone else. The wider galaxy believes At Attin to be a myth. To pirates, it’s a lost planet of eternal treasure. (One of these pirates is played by Jaleel White. Yes, Steve Urkel grew up to become a space pirate. If Family Matters had run much longer, you know that would have happened eventually.)

The kids wanted their world to be more exciting, but all these strangers and aliens view it as the ultimate destination. It’s a nice take on “The grass is always greener on the other side.”

The pirate starship comes equipped with a droid called SM 33 (voiced by Nick Frost). If a pirate were transformed into a Star Wars droid, that would be 33, right down to his speech patterns. He has a somewhat skeletal appearance, and he’s missing one eye. But instead of an eye patch or a parrot, an alien rodent lives in the empty eye socket.

The droid is a double-edged sword. Fern convinces him that she’s now the captain of the ship, which puts him on the kids’ side. But 33 is clearly damaged, demented, and unreliable. He can provide some muscle and tech support, but the show quickly makes it clear that he will not be the solution to their every problem. The droid helps move things forward, but he’s just as likely to get in the way.

The kids need some grown-up assistance, and they soon find some. Maybe. Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law) initially presents himself as a Jedi in the Obi-Wan Kenobi mold, though he might be more of a rogue in the Han Solo mold. Or perhaps just a rogue, maybe even an outright scoundrel. Who’s to say?

Jod remains ambiguous for most of the series, complete with an ever-growing list of aliases. The kids debate whether he’s actually a Jedi or not. Jod lets Fern act like she’s in charge, and he also has some heart-to-heart chats with his young allies and dispenses advice. But he’s not entirely forthright. All that’s clear is that the kids need Jod, and Jod needs the kids. It’s an uneasy alliance.

We do get definitive answers by the end, though. No cliffhanger season finale here. The story concludes while leaving room for more, and that’s much appreciated.

When I first saw the trailer, I wondered if this was originally intended to be a Star Wars series or if the Star Wars branding was imposed upon it. As far as I can tell, though, it was always going to take place in the Star Wars universe.

Still, with a few adjustments, The Skeleton Crew could have launched an entirely new franchise. The pitch is “The Goonies meets Star Wars,” but it could also have been “The Goonies meets Pirates of the Caribbean … in space!” Did it need Star Wars?

The Star Wars connection adds another layer of fun and allows us to view familiar elements through fresh eyes. But you don’t need to be a Star Wars fan to enjoy this. Untethering from preexisting material might have allowed additional creative opportunities. The writers and producers could have created something new while still drawing inspiration from previous works (like the original trilogy did).

I truly don’t know which way would be better, though I’m curious what others think. I’m sure of only one thing: We don’t want to reach the point where all new space-based shows require Star Wars or Star Trek branding in order to get developed.

But the occasional good Star Wars or Star Trek show is more than welcome, and The Skeleton Crew is indeed a good Star Wars show.