Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is the latest Disney + Star Wars project, shifting focus over to a more Amblin Films, Goonies, style of storytelling. Unlike most Star Wars properties under the Disney heading, this TV show opts to focus on aspects of the universe that are far distant from the events of any of the films, allowing for audiences new and old to have a unique viewing experience. While they are known in Star Wars lore to exist, the TV show focuses more in depth on the pirate culture within the universe, pulling a lot of inspiration from “Treasure Island”, mixing it with the genre’s of the aforementioned Amblin style of films to create something that feels fresh and new for Star Wars.
Skeleton Crew takes the relatively simple premise of a group of kids who accidentally get lost in the galaxy, attempting to return home, and mixes it with the intrigue and allure of a pirate tale set within the Star Wars universe. Because of this, the show gets to play a lot with classic tropes of all of these genres and universes, such as using the Star Wars trope of featuring a companion droid in SM-33, while also making his name literally translate to Smee, a classic pirate character. You also get the show’s mysterious and villainous Jod Na Nawood, who also goes by various other names, like Captain Silvo, whose names can be pieced together to make Long John Silver, while other names he goes by tie back to other Star Wars lore. In many ways, this kind of approach to the lore within this story creates a unique vantage point from which fans of all of these genres and landscapes can find something to relate to.
On the flip side there is the story revolving around the show’s main characters, the children. Wim, Fern, KB, and Neel are the children of analysts and politicians within their home planet of At Attin, whose relatively similar background helps highlight how people from small towns can differ so much regardless of how much they have in common. It should also be pointed out that the world these kids are from resembles U.S suburban culture more so than anything ever has within Star Wars. While at first this can be jarring and almost make the show feel as if it is very disconnected, the reveal that At Attin is a planet hidden from the galaxy that pirates view as the Holy Grail allows that suspension of disbelief to dissipate.
Together, these worlds really create a tone and feeling that can really only be compared to The Goonies, although even that is selling it short. In actuality, Skeleton Crew does an excellent job of marrying all of these genres together to create a property that feels almost wholly unique, despite incorporating so many other ideas. In many ways, this is what gives the show so much of its charm, especially as it leans into every genre it is supplanting at every moment possible.
Another excellent part of the show is how it marries its story with its characters, never allowing one to outshine the other. While the plot is simple, it is carried by two large mysteries: What is so special about At Attin, and what is going on with Jod? While these mysteries are tapped at slightly in each episode prior to the finale, they never feel like the only reason for watching the show.
Comic Watchers Talk Skeleton Crew:
In actuality, the story structure and characters are what make the show so great. More or less, each episode sees the characters either go to a new place or encounter a new hardship on their journey to get home. Sometimes this is encountering a planet that is similar to At Attin by accident, whereas other times it is a conflict in opposing opinions that sees the group split up. Either way, each episode helps flesh out more of the characters, with each of the children getting their time to shine, grow, and develop before their journey comes to an end.
Without getting into spoilers, there is a line in the final episode that really helps highlight the themes that this show is striving for. Fern is discussing her journey with another character and starts getting somewhat berated for leaving the planet and not understanding how safe At Attin was for her and her friends. In a lot of ways, this symbolizes the idea that people tend to take two different directions in life once they reach adulthood, whether it’s moving away and going to college and starting a new career in someplace far from home, or it’s staying home and joining a small business that your father or mother helped create and continuing the family legacy. For Fern and her family, this is more viewed in a literal sense because the planet quite literally is hidden from the galaxy, and therefore protected, but it also directly symbolizes the idea that never leaving and staying home and staying around something familiar may be the safest approach, but it doesn’t lead to the most rolled experiences and creating the most well rounded in person.
After Fern receives the speech from the other character, she responds by saying that everywhere they went in the galaxy, there was always at least one good person who helped them get to where they needed to go. While this is just one single line in a vast finale for this show, it touches on those ideas of fear of leaving home to an unfamiliar and frightening world outside of your comfort zone. Yes, the crew encounters several horrors and villainous characters, but they also find people who are good hearted and willing to help them for no reason at all. Sometimes these are children who they can closely relate to, whereas other times they are large creatures that visually look like they would be a threat upon first glance. Either way, the idea that the journey taught the children so much about what the universe can look like outside of their home really paints the picture of what the themes of the show are really about.
Another part of the show that is deeply fascinating, is how it connects back to children who grew up with Star Wars, not just the films, but also the toys and the mythology. Wim and Neel are shown early on pretending to be Jedi and playing with Star Wars toys and reading about Jedi lore just like many kids growing up who were fascinated and loved the films. As mentioned before, the show was able to get away with this by making their home planet, very distant, and secluded from the rest of the galaxy, but it also adds kind of a metatextual discussion to the show, giving fans another avenue of relatability to these main characters. While this is a bit jarring in the first episode, the true meaning starts to rear its head later on creating a very unique perspective to view this kind of story that has never really been done in this universe before.