Skeleton Crew worked because it actually enjoyed discovering Star Wars

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew wore its influences on its sleeve. Despite being part The Goonies, part Treasure Island, and coated in a sweet, science-fantasy shell, Skeleton Crew’s best homage was not to existing Star Wars characters or stories, but to the joy of discovering the larger world of George Lucas’ galaxy through another person’s eyes.

That’s the position Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), one of Skeleton Crew’s endearing kid adventurers, finds himself in after years of immersing himself in picture books about the Jedi. Like Luke Skywalker, Wim wants to escape his humdrum existence, explore the galaxy, and become a Jedi himself. Throughout the show, Wim delights in the danger he finds himself in, often ignorant to just how perilous and unfriendly much of the galaxy beyond At Attin is. He’s captivated by the things he’s seen only in picture books: space pirates, fearsome alien creatures, and lightsabers. Yes, he wants to find his way home to At Attin, but laments that his adventure seems to be coming to its end in Skeleton Crew’s penultimate episode.

Wim, like his crewmates Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), KB (Kyriana Kratter), and Neel (Robert Timothy Smith), learns about the cold, dark corners of the Star Wars universe and the bright pinpricks of light that shine through the darkness. They learn that there are good people out there, like Kh’ymm and Melna; that Jedi exist and that they can be flawed. Skeleton Crew was permitted to offer a fresh, uncynical look at Star Wars by being set in discrete pockets of the galaxy previously unseen and, in some cases, unknown even by their inhabitants. Cordoning off At Attin from the rest of the explored galaxy gives us a chance to see the wonder of Star Wars from a fresh set of eyes.

Show creators Christopher Ford and Jon Watts certainly don’t ignore Star Wars lore or the franchise as an influence. But Skeleton Crew didn’t rely so heavily on fanservice or fleshing out existing stories the way that Disney Plus fare like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka, and even Andor have. Skeleton Crew is full of Easter eggs and deep cuts, to be sure; it’s got its share of X-wing pilots and even called back to old Star Wars television content like Ewoks: The Battle for Endor and the Star Wars Holiday Special.

And, of course, there’s the Jedi, which Wim is fascinated by. The mystery of Jod Na Nawood’s (Jude Law) Force sensitivity has been a recurring mystery throughout the show: Is he really a Jedi, or just a slippery con man who’s learned a few tricks? Kind of both, actually — the show ultimately reveals that Jod seemingly never graduated beyond Padawan before turning pirate. He barely knows how to handle a lightsaber, a fact that’s pretty refreshing in the modern age of Star Wars’ highly choreographed laser sword battles.

By the end of the series, we see Wim yearning to learn more about the Star Wars galaxy, a feeling that many Star Wars fans likely felt after seeing A New Hope or The Phantom Menace for the first time. Skeleton Crew exudes the youth, hopefulness, and heroism of those Star Wars trilogy starters, offering an optimistic entry point into the franchise.

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is the best thing Lucasfilm has done since Andor, in part because it’s the latter show’s tonal opposite: Instead of showing a person ground down by the harshest elements of the Star Wars galaxy, it showed a kid falling in love with its promise. I love Andor, both for its place in the Skywalker saga and its adult-oriented, darkly cynical tone. But Star Wars can’t be grim politics all the time. More often than not, it needs to appeal to kids like Wim. Kids who can still be dazzled by a space opera.

As a Star Wars fan, Wim’s joy in discovering a fantastical universe that has millions of stories to tell is not only relatable, but very much needed right now.

Skeleton Crew is now streaming on Disney Plus.