In the coming years, the Star Wars universe will continue to grow and evolve through a slate of new TV shows as well as movies, one of which includes the return of Rey Skywalker (Daisy Ridley). In terms of the small screen, the next show on the docket is Ahsoka, followed by The Acolyte. And then there’s Skeleton Crew.
While we have a general idea of what the other shows are about — Ahsoka continues the story of Star Wars Rebels, for instance — Skeleton Crew is something of a mystery. It sounds almost like a Stranger Things-style story set in the galaxy far, far away. Producer Jon Watts previously explained to Entertainment Weekly that the series is “a story about a group of kids, about 10 years old, from a tiny little planet who accidentally get lost in the Star Wars galaxy. And it’s the story of their journey trying to find their way home.”
Jude Law teases Star Wars: Skeleton Crew
Skeleton Crew also stars Jude Law, whose role is currently under wraps, but fans are speculating that he could be playing a Jedi. Speaking to EW, Law played coy. “I can’t tell you very much about my character,” he said. “He is someone the children meet on their attempt to get home. He is like a lot of the world that they experience: contradictory, and at times a place of nurture and other times a place of threat.”
Law thinks that the age-old formula of a group of kids in dangerous situations — seen in ’80s classics like The Goonies and E.T. all the way through modern shows like Stranger Things — will bring something fresh to the Star Wars universe.
"At times there’s a sort of goofy nature and a goofy relationship between the kids and the adults. And then other times it’s really quite dark and quite scary, which I guess is what the world probably looks like to an awful lot of 11-year-olds."
Given that he’s played Albus Dumbledore in the Fantastic Beasts movies, Jude Law is no stranger to major franchises. A role in Star Wars was always his childhood dream. “Probably the reason I started acting was running around a playground pretending to be Luke or Han or Chewbacca or Vader — that literally was what I was playing and acting as a child. And so being in it is both kind of surreal and seems very second-nature in some ways.”
Director Christopher Ford calls Star Wars: Skeleton Crew a “fun adventure”
With kids in the main cast, there’s always the risk of the show ostracizing a portion of its potential audience. Will adults be interested? Or is this one geared towards kids?
Who’s to say it can’t be for both, like Stranger Things? According to director Christopher Ford, the main goal of the series is to create a fun adventure that can be enjoyed by anyone. “Hopefully it can be for all ages,” he said. “When we told Kathy Kennedy about 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.”
"Skeleton Crew’s tone is an adventure. 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."
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is expected to drop on Disney+ later this year, although no specific release date has been set as of yet.
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