“Star Wars” has all the time been, on some degree, for kids. That’s neither condescension nor criticism: George Lucas created a swashbuckling fairy story set in area, and its mantle has been taken up by successive generations of filmmakers who encountered it at a formative age. But, excluding “The Phantom Menace,” “Star Wars” tales have not often been about kids. That’s the worth proposition of “Skeleton Crew,” the most recent TV collection from a franchise that now largely exists on the small display. In a means, it’s additionally essentially the most true to the saga’s DNA — or a minimum of a specific pressure of it.
Though “Star Wars” hasn’t delivered a blockbuster to the multiplex since 2019, Lucasfilm has maintained a gradual drip of releases on Disney+. These tasks have been variable in high quality, from “Andor” on the excessive finish to “Obi-Wan Kenobi” on the low, however they’ve additionally had the impact of isolating sure components of the “Star Wars” gestalt. A four-quadrant film has to attraction to everybody, which “Star Wars” all the time has by being half fantasy, half navy epic, half romance and half coming-of-age. Series might be extra focused, and have been: “Andor” is an grownup political drama, with out a whiff of the supernatural; “The Mandalorian” is a neo-Western; “The Acolyte,” which was canceled after airing a single season earlier this yr, centered purely on the Jedi as wizard-like mystics. The energy of “Star Wars” in its present type is that it’s a giant tent, containing all these genres and tones with little obvious contradiction.
“Skeleton Crew,” then, is a purely nostalgic children’ journey — a logical lane for “Star Wars” to pursue, given each its personal historical past and the large success of “Stranger Things.” If “Skeleton Crew” can typically present indicators of such coldly rational reverse engineering, the allure of its forged and their infectious sense of surprise goes a good distance towards promoting the endeavor. Modern IP mining, which co-creators Jon Watts and Christopher Ford (each of “Spider-Man: Homecoming”) aren’t any strangers to, is an train in grown-up children attending to play with hand-me-down toys; there’s one thing refreshing about seeing that course of literalized in a toddler gleefully operating amok on a spaceship.
Though a textual content crawl and a chilly open set up that “Skeleton Crew” takes place amid a rash of area piracy within the post-“Return of the Jedi,” pre-“The Force Awakens” period of the New Republic, “Skeleton Crew” places us within the perspective of Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), a child who’d slightly play imaginary lightsabers together with his buddy Neel (Robert Timothy Smith, sporting an lovely CGI elephant head as a brand new, betrunked “Star Wars” creature) than examine for a take a look at. Wim and his widowed father Wendle (Tunde Adebimpe) reside on At Attin, a suspiciously utopian planet that silos its younger residents into profession tracks to help in “the good work” of post-Empire state constructing — however doesn’t permit any starships to enter or exit its rigorously guarded airspace. It’s additionally our first glimpse on the “Star Wars” model of a suburban idyll, which is uncanny sufficient by itself.
That seclusion explains why Wim errors a grounded ship for a misplaced Jedi temple, and the way he finally ends up stranded far, distant 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 level; who hasn’t geeked out over Jedi lore at that age, or wished they could possibly be part of it? But Armstrong will get to play the savvier, much less naive Fern as a bit extra of a badass, although all 4 children are in over their heads when the ship’s malfunctioning droid (Nick Frost) navigates them straight right into a pirate den.
There, they encounter the largest star on this nook of the galaxy: one Jude Law, whose character introduces himself as a seeming Force person named Jod Na Nawood. As on At Attin, there’s clearly extra happening with Jod than meets the attention, and it’s pleasant to look at Law let his masks slip into the caddish glee that marks one in all his extra pleasurable modes. Neither he, Adebimpe nor “The Banshees of Inisherin” star Kerry Condon, as Fern’s mom, ever give the impression they’re phoning it in for a franchise paycheck. Besides, their collective star energy is matched behind the digicam: Watts helms the pilot, whereas David Lowery (“The Green Knight”), The Daniels (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) and Lee Isaac Chung (“Twisters”) tackle a minimum of an episode apiece.
In the three episodes screened for critics, “Skeleton Crew” by no means conveys a way of galactic stakes or deadly hazard — a aid, given each the age of its protagonists and the diminishing returns of all the time saving the world. Nor is there an specific reference to better-known “Star Wars” tales, although one will possible emerge down later within the eight-episode season (I’m nonetheless groaning at that ultimate shot of Yoda in “The Acolyte,” particularly because it turned out to finish the collection.) There’s a ceiling on the ambitions of a present that sticks to its “Goonies”-esque playbook and retains issues so mild; “Skeleton Crew” takes “Star Wars” to new locations solely within the literal sense. But the present is ready to nail its restricted transient, and make a “Star Wars” present that’s truly rooted in childhood slightly than evoking reminiscences of 1’s personal.
The first two episodes of “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” are actually streaming on Disney+, with remaining episodes airing weekly on Tuesdays.
