TRAILER: Skeleton Crew Season 1 (2024)

Television

This Friday, August 9th, the first trailer for Skeleton Crew was screened at the D23 convention in Anaheim. Created by Jon Watts and Christopher Ford, the show has been described as Stranger Things in space or Star Wars meets Amblin. Watts and Ford directed and wrote Spider-Man: Homecoming, respectively. Skeleton Crew takes place in the “Mando-verse” timeline and follows four children who get lost following a discovery on their home world. Check out a plot synopsis from star Jude Law via Entertainment Weekly’s Dagobah Dispatch here:

“Skeleton Crew is a timeless adventure story in the spirit of the Amblin coming-of-age stories from the ‘80s like The Goonies and E.T.,” Law said, explaining that the young characters “find themselves lost in the vastness of the galaxy in danger and trying to find their way home.”

And here’s the new trailer:

As many expected, it would appear that Law’s character, Jod Na Nawood, is a Jedi, or possibly someone posing as one, a la Haja Estree in Obi-Wan Kenobi. The four kids are played by Ryan Keira Armstrong, Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Kyriana Kratter, and Robert Timothy Smith. Skeleton Crew will also star Kerry Condon and Tunde Adebimpe. The show will primarily follow the four children, but it’s not just for kids. Watts and Ford previously discussed this with Entertainment Weekly’s Dagobah Dispatch podcast:

“Skeleton Crew’s tone is an adventure,” Ford told Entertainment Weekly’s Dagobah Dispatch podcast last year. “We wanted it to be a lot of fun. But of course, along with adventure comes the downside of it, which is danger. And when the kids are in danger, it’s extra fraught. So we played with that, but overall we wanted it to be just a fun adventure.”

 “Hopefully it can be for all ages,” Ford continued. “When we told [Kathleen] Kennedy that we wanted to go for that Amblin tone, which she perfected over the years, what she would say is that they never thought of those as movies for kids. They just happen to be about kids, a story of a kid going on an adventure. So it could be for anyone.”

Reports on the show’s production haven’t been ideal, with insiders allegedly claiming rewrites and displeasure with the show’s overall tone. It’s easy to believe they would have problems; honestly, all I see with modern Lucasfilm are problems, besides the animation and Andor. Tony Gilroy should be in charge of Star Wars, but something tells me he wouldn’t want that job.

I think the trailer itself is fine; it’s perfectly serviceable, but there’s nothing special or inspired that jumps out. I think Jod having the Force (or seeming to, at least) is supposed to be a show-stopping moment, but it’s not. I’m sure the Force is something rare and special to these kids, but it’s not for the audience. This may work better in the show; perhaps they slowly build up the mundanity of the kids’ lives. We’ll have to wait and see. I liked Ryan Keira Armstrong a lot in American Horror Story: Double Feature. She was an excellent scary child character there, so I have no doubt she will succeed in her role as one of the four protagonists in Skeleton Crew. And I love Jude Law, to be clear; I’ve never seen a bad performance from him. I know he’ll be good, whether he’s a Jedi or something else entirely. My fears and concerns come from Lucasfilm and Kathleen Kennedy. I will absolutely watch Skeleton Crew when it comes out this December; I’m just somewhat worried in the meantime.

But what do you think about the trailer, Skeleton Crew’s concept, cast, or anything else? Let us know in the comments!