A new trailer was recently released for Skeleton Crew, the newest Star Wars series that will be coming to Disney+ on December 3.
With it giving us a much better look at the series and what to expect, I thought it would be good to cover some of the big takeaways from it.
1. Pirates!
We knew that there would be pirates in this series, but the more we learn about the show the more it appears the pirates will be a pivotal part of it. The trailer makes it seem like the pirates are on the hunt for this crew of kids, and there are at least a few different gangs that appear on the trail. The station they wind up on even seems like it could be a pirate station, and I’m wondering if they could connect with the same pirates seen in The Mandalorian season three. Pirate king Gorian Shard was killed, but one of his top lieutenants, the pirate Vane, will be in this show. Though it will be interesting to see if these pirate groups are connected, I like the idea of the main villains of this show being the pirates. I liked the pirates developed for The Mandalorian, even if it felt out of place some times, but in a series like this it seems like a perfect development – especially since there will be treasure hunting.
2. Their ship might be quite old
While on the space station, one of the kids attempts to pay for his food with credits… credits that the bartender describes as “old Republic credits”, much to the surprise of everyone. Now, when they say old Republic credits, I think they probably actually mean the Old Republic (not just the Galactic Republic that fell a few decades earlier). After all, the shocked reaction to these credits would suggest something that very few have actually seen before. If that is true, then it means that somehow these kids have stumbled upon some very old treasure, and I’m guessing that they found it aboard the ship, the Onyx Cinder. That could be a clue, then, that this ship is actually quite old. This ship could have been sitting on the planet, remote and abandoned, for a long time before the kids found it, the treasure, and the first-mate aboard, the droid SM-33 (who shows off some really formidable fighting skills in the trailer).
3. What does Jod Na Nawood really want?
One of the show’s main characters will be Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law), but we still don’t know much about him. The first trailer hinted at him being Force sensitive (though that remains to be seen), but this trailer didn’t dive into that. Rather, it gave us more looks at his journeys with this group of kids. When the kids find themselves in trouble aboard the space station, Nawood finds them and says, “I’ll get you home. We’ll make a partnership. But we have to move fast.” It is interesting, though, that he uses the word “partnership”, that he is shown (presumably) spying on the kids as they show the credits, and that there is a great treasure they’re hunting. That all suggests to me that Nawood might be a scoundrel looking for a profitable job, who along the way shows that he’s got a great heart and that he’s actually driven by more than just money (a Han Solo-like figure). If that’s true, then I could see his “Force” powers being more of a ruse (like Haja Estree). It seems like he’ll be a hero figure, but we don’t know why he joins the kids – perhaps it’s for less-than-ideal reasons.
4. A treasure hunting adventure
One of the most exciting parts of the trailer for me was getting more of a glimpse of the treasure hunting aspects of the series. We see booby traps and treasure, and in that way, I’m hoping that we get an Indiana Jones-esque adventure series. That’s certainly what it’s looking like, and I think that’s awesome. I’m going to speculate a bit here, but I wonder if this ancient ship they stumble upon actually contains some secrets about an ancient treasure, and that’s why the pirates want it. To see an adventure series like this, complete with traps and trials along the way as they search for the hidden treasure, would be a real treat.
5. The New Republic is involved in some way
At one point in the trailer, we see glimpses of a snowy planet and an apparently luxurious building. Real briefly, we see a couple of shots that show us X-Wings flying by. At this point in the timeline, the New Republic is in power, so these are likely New Republic X-Wings. I think the most likely explanation is that the planet is simply under New Republic control and therefore there are routine patrols, but it’s possible that there’s something more. After all, though this series seems like it’s being marketed as distinct from other Star Wars stories, we know it will have at least some loose connections with The Mandalorian storyline. The crew behind The Mandalorian are executive producing this series (Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy, and Colin Wilson have been executive producers on every Mando-verse project), and that means I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see some connective tissue. Like, maybe, Carson Teva flying one of the X-Wings or something?
6. Their homeworld is unknown
Alongside the trailer release, StarWars.com ran an article with comments from showrunners Jon Watts Chris Ford about the show. At one point, Ford spoke about the kids leaving “what they think of as a boring planet” and finding themselves lost in the galaxy. “They realize once they’re out there,” Ford continues, “that no one’s ever heard of their home planet.” That’s a really interesting note. From the looks of the trailer, this planet is more ‘normal’ than a lot of other planets we’ve seen in the galaxy (Star Wars in the suburbs, if you will), and it makes sense why kids longing for adventure would find it boring. It seems there’s more going on than meets the eye (the trailer shows parents, teachers, and droids searching for them, but there’s some suspicion there), but Ford’s comment about no one having heard of their home planet is what is most interesting. What does that mean?
There has been speculation by Star Wars fans that perhaps the kids get lost in another galaxy, which does seem like a possibility, but it’s also just as possible (probably more so) that the planet they are from is largely insignificant on the galactic scale and therefore it’s such a minor player that no one even knows where it is. It’s probably located somewhere in the Outer Rim, in the Wild Space area, and that means we could be exploring new parts of the galaxy.
7. The series stars two sets of best friends
That StarWars.com article also reveals that the group of kids is actually two sets of best friends. It tells us that Wim and Neel are best friends, and Fern and KB are best friends. “I think many of us craved that same feeling of escape and empowerment when we were younger,” Ford said. “We’ve all pondered our place in the universe, and this story explores the galaxy through a unique perspective, which is the curious mind of the child in all of us. In this case, an imaginative day dreamer, a risk taker, a loyal best friend and a tech wiz. These kids are in danger. They’re in over their heads.” The fact that these are two sets of friends, however, means that there’s the potential for some conflict among the four of them as they all adjust to new relationships and new situations together.
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