This week’s piece comes from a bit of brain-racking I’ve been doing since the AndMore Event in early June. During the breaks throughout the day, us fans and attendees got chatting and a common theme kept coming up again and again.
“Wasn’t Skeleton Crew great fun? Loved it. Really enjoyed it.”
Now, this had been my sentiment since the show aired and I felt this consensus in my network of friends and fans. However, having talked more and more to folk then it seems that the show played very much in the same way Solo: A Star Wars Story did back in 2018; people felt it wasn’t going to change their life, but it was great fun and a terrific Star Wars adventure.
So, if people enjoyed Skeleton Crew then where will it end up in the pantheon of Star Wars lore?
Sadly, I believe it may be left behind, at least in the short term. The second season of Andor has quite rightly been a goliath success on triple fronts. It was met with critical acclaim, it was adored by fans, and has become a ratings success. Star Wars needed this. Not since the finale of the second season of The Mandalorian five years ago has there been such excitement and passion in the fandom.
Now, Skeleton Crew did have a few things stacked against it, much like Solo. It was released a few months after The Acolyte, which divided fans and left a bitter taste. Also, Skeleton Crew was an odd one to market as for the first time it featured nothing connected to the Star Wars universe that would draw in casual viewers. Even The Acolyte, love or hate it, had lightsabers featured prominently in the trailers.
Skeleton Crew did exactly as promised. It was a fun, no strings attached adventure romp set in a galaxy far, far away.
There was a decent amount of promotion. Billboards, screenings and press junkets were doing the rounds but there was a significant lack of merchandise. This became apparent when the pivot with the Retro Collection came and it came just at the wrong time. If there was ever a show that needed a line of Retro figures, it was a show with the retro vibe of Skeleton Crew, but there was nothing and there will be nothing which is a shame.
Further confirmation came at Celebration Japan when there was nothing on the schediule from the show. Nothing in the kids zone either. Only Doug Chiang did a panel focusing on designing the worlds of Skeleton Crew, and Fantha Tracks flew the flag by featuring KB herself Kyrianna Kratter on our Good Morning Tatooine x Making Tracks panel.
The original pitch for the show was a movie but when Disney shifted focus to streaming it became the 8-episode series that we got. So, though fans seemed to have enjoyed the show it didn’t set the world alight with the ratings so a second season seems highly unlikely. That’s not to say we won’t ever see the characters again. Jude Law was a highlight, especially towards the end of the series when Jod went full anti-hero mode.
I know I enjoyed the show, as in a few weekends time I have a rare event taking place. On a particular Sunday I have no places to be, no people to see and I’m being left home alone. Already in my head I’m thinking that a rerun of Skeleton Crew would be a day well spent.
When the show came out, I instantly felt that it worked because in all the right ways it felt like the kind of thing George would have made for ABC Television in 1985. It had the right tone and texture to it, and left me feeling good.
Lucasfilm are right to slow things down on the live-action front. Too much too soon can flood the market, and we’ve seen that happen. We are creatures of habit, and I still live in a world where my head tells me that an action figure should be £5.99 and we only get a movie every three years.
I hope Skeleton Crew gets a second life. When we hosted our panel at Celebration Japan the energy for the show was palpable, and after speaking to friends it even managed to get their own children excited for Star Wars.
Isn’t that what George has always intended? Star Wars is for kids?
Let us know how you feel about Skeleton Crew six months on in Fantha Tracks socials.
