Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Trailer Drops

Of all the current Star Wars content coming out of Disney and Marvel, the only one I’ve found really watchable (granted The Mandalorian and The Book Of Boba Fett were necessarily in my wheelhouses, especially the latter) was the Disney Junior show Young Jedi Adventures. Given that it’s set in their original timeline of the “High Republic”, has a kid pilot (because Disney Junior) with two moms, and there isn’t a white boy to be seen if you see a white person at all, that’s kind of amazing. At least the episodes I’ve seen do teach how to be a good person and hero. Which is more than I can say for a lot of Star Wars content these days.

When I first heard of Skeleton Crew I was expecting something along the lines of Lower Decks without the animated comedy. (Actually, I thought it was animated.) Well, the new trailer is out and it reminds me more of Star Trek: Prodigy or Space Cases, maybe The Astronauts. Does that mean it’s any good? From the promotional page:

“Skeleton Crew” follows the journey of four kids who make a mysterious discovery on their seemingly safe home planet, then get lost in a strange and dangerous galaxy, crossing paths with the likes of Jod Na Nawood, the mysterious character played by Law. Finding their way home—and meeting unlikely allies and enemies—will be a greater adventure than they ever imagined.

The Executive Producers are Christopher Ford, Jon Watts, Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy, and Colin Wilson and the Co-Executive Producers are Chris Buongiorno, Karen Gilchrist, and Carrie Beck.

Interesting concept, which as I noted has been done before. I didn’t list all of them just with kids as the main crew. It’s not even the first time for Disney if memory serves. Still, just because it has been done before, the idea can be revisited with a new perspective, perhaps a Star Wars makeover?

Doesn’t mean it is, either.

Outside of the Jedi, the droids, and the occasional alien they think the kids like, this doesn’t really feel very Star Wars-y to me. They live in the suburbs, and it looks like the suburbs on Earth. After that I couldn’t connect it to Star Wars, and I accepted the 1950s diner. I don’t know why I accepted the 1950s diner, but it was still alien enough that it worked for me I guess. This just looks like the neighborhood the Monkees sang about in “Pleasant Valley Sunday”. The school was my school with better desks, and I’ve never been to California. Even those droids could just be robots.

This makes me wonder if this is another of those concepts they couldn’t sell because studios don’t take risks (odd because Space Cases did well and it’s too bad we didn’t get more episodes of The Astronauts), so they said “oh, um, this is totally a Star Wars show, with Jedi and droids and a kid version of Max Rebo”, which is sadly nothing new in Hollywood. They were doing that even before the current social climate. This could have been a remake of Hypernauts if they broke out the battlemechs, or Prodigy if they made it Star Trek instead of Star Wars. It just feels like they didn’t try.

Does that mean it will be terrible? The only evidence we have is DisneyFilm’s recent track record, where everything after the second Mandalorian season and the Andor series has done little to excite fans, and even Andor didn’t get an audience because everything else had been so terrible, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is only partly Star Wars like in universe, while not really matching that action serial tone that made the original so fun. Everything else has just not garnered an audience, or has received outright mockery by fans who just don’t see Star Wars in the current content, sometimes intentional if you listen to some of the people behind it. Again, the Disney Junior show with the eight year old who has her own spaceship is more Star Wars like than most of Disney’s current releases.

Could it be good? We could be surprised. Will it feel like Star Wars? Not from what I see in this trailer, and there is a difference. We have to wait until December 3rd to find out.