“Star Wars” has always been, on some level, for children. That’s neither condescension nor criticism: George Lucas created a swashbuckling fairy tale set in space, and its mantle has been taken up by successive generations of filmmakers who encountered it at a formative age. But, with the exception of “The Phantom Menace,” “Star Wars” stories have rarely been about children. That’s the value proposition of “Skeleton Crew,” the latest TV series from a franchise that now largely exists on the small screen. In a way, it’s also the most true to the saga’s DNA — or at least a particular strain of it.
Though “Star Wars” hasn’t delivered a blockbuster to the multiplex since 2019, Lucasfilm has maintained a steady drip of releases on Disney+. These projects have been variable in quality, from “Andor” on the high end to “Obi-Wan Kenobi” on the low, but they’ve also had the effect of isolating certain elements of the “Star Wars” gestalt. A four-quadrant movie has to appeal to everyone, which “Star Wars” always has by being part fantasy, part military epic, part romance and part coming-of-age. Series can be more targeted, and have been: “Andor” is an adult political drama, without a whiff of the supernatural; “The Mandalorian” is a neo-Western; “The Acolyte,” which was canceled after airing a single season earlier this year, focused purely on the Jedi as wizard-like mystics. The strength of “Star Wars” in its current form is that it’s a big tent, containing all these genres and tones with little apparent contradiction.
“Skeleton Crew,” then, is a purely nostalgic kids’ adventure — a logical lane for “Star Wars” to pursue, given both its own history and the massive success of “Stranger Things.” If “Skeleton Crew” can sometimes show signs of such coldly rational reverse engineering, the charm of its cast and their infectious sense of wonder goes a long way toward selling the endeavor. Modern IP mining, which co-creators Jon Watts and Christopher Ford (both of “Spider-Man: Homecoming”) are no strangers to, is an exercise in grown-up kids getting to play with hand-me-down toys; there’s something refreshing about seeing that process literalized in a child gleefully running amok on a spaceship.
Though a text crawl and a cold open establish that “Skeleton Crew” takes place amid a rash of space piracy in the post-“Return of the Jedi,” pre-“The Force Awakens” era of the New Republic, “Skeleton Crew” puts us in the perspective of Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), a kid who’d rather play imaginary lightsabers with his friend Neel (Robert Timothy Smith, sporting an adorable CGI elephant head as a new, betrunked “Star Wars” creature) than study for a test. Wim and his widowed father Wendle (Tunde Adebimpe) live on At Attin, a suspiciously utopian planet that silos its young citizens into career tracks to assist in “the great work” of post-Empire state building — but doesn’t allow any starships to enter or exit its rigorously guarded airspace. It’s also our first glimpse at the “Star Wars” version of a suburban idyll, which is uncanny enough on its own.
That seclusion explains why Wim mistakes a grounded ship for a lost Jedi temple, and how he ends up stranded far, far away with Neel and two new, uneasy allies: swaggering tomboy Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) and tech whiz KB (Kyriana Kratter, sporting a sick bob and a Cyclops-esque headpiece). Wim’s enthusiasm is a relatable entry point; who hasn’t geeked out over Jedi lore at that age, or wished they could be a part of it? But Armstrong gets to play the savvier, less naive Fern as a bit more of a badass, though all four kids are in over their heads when the ship’s malfunctioning droid (Nick Frost) navigates them straight into a pirate den.
There, they encounter the biggest star in this corner of the galaxy: one Jude Law, whose character introduces himself as a seeming Force user named Jod Na Nawood. As on At Attin, there’s clearly more going on with Jod than meets the eye, and it’s delightful to watch Law let his mask slip into the caddish glee that marks one of his more enjoyable modes. Neither he, Adebimpe nor “The Banshees of Inisherin” star Kerry Condon, as Fern’s mother, ever give the impression they’re phoning it in for a franchise paycheck. Besides, their collective star power is matched behind the camera: Watts helms the pilot, while David Lowery (“The Green Knight”), The Daniels (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) and Lee Isaac Chung (“Twisters”) take on at least an episode apiece.
In the three episodes screened for critics, “Skeleton Crew” never conveys a sense of galactic stakes or fatal danger — a relief, given both the age of its protagonists and the diminishing returns of always saving the world. Nor is there an explicit connection with better-known “Star Wars” stories, though one will likely emerge down later in the eight-episode season (I’m still groaning at that final shot of Yoda in “The Acolyte,” especially since it turned out to end the series.) There’s a ceiling on the ambitions of a show that sticks to its “Goonies”-esque playbook and keeps things so light; “Skeleton Crew” takes “Star Wars” to new places only in the literal sense. But the show is able to nail its limited brief, and make a “Star Wars” show that’s actually rooted in childhood rather than evoking memories of one’s own.
The first two episodes of “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” are now streaming on Disney+, with remaining episodes airing weekly on Tuesdays.
