Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Review – A jubilant adventure series for children

We left the Star Wars saga last June with the unconvincing The Acolyte and its timid plot. The cult universe of George Lucas returns this December 3, 2024 on Disney+ with the series Skeleton Crew and his group of kids lost in space.

A new production with gentle regressive reflections and which has the heavy task of rehabilitating a saga more criticized than ever. Mission accomplished? The Digitals was able to watch its first three episodes (out of eight), and here is our review guaranteed without spoilers.

The history of the series

After a mysterious discovery on their home planet, four children become lost on a dangerous journey through a galaxy far, far away. By all means, they try to find the path that will take them home. Their adventure, much bigger than anything they could have imagined, will be punctuated by encounters, both with allies and unlikely enemies.

Our review

Co-created by Jon Watts and Christopher Ford, already behind the reboot teen drama of Spider-Man for the MCU, Skeleton Crew ultimately uses the same ingredients to try to update a disappointing galactic franchise since its acquisition by The Walt Disney Company in 2012. To do this, the series intends to summon the spirit of Amblin productions (The Goonies, ET, the extra-terrestrial) from the 1980s.

We thus find the ingredients of “band films” in the Stand By Me (Rob Reiner, 1986) with these kids caught between strict parents, a boring school world, best friends, missed buses and homework to do. Skeleton Crew thus immediately places us at child’s eye level, marking its difference with the previous series live of the franchise, and digging a little deeper into its identity.

This choice pays off, notably thanks to its refreshing casting of young actors. In the three short episodes that we were able to see, the little-known Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Robert Timothy Smith and Kyriana Kratter charm, wonderfully encapsulating this innocence and the need for discovery colliding with an overly severe adult world.

This uncertain quartet then finds themselves catapulted into the lesser-known confines of the galaxy created by George Lucas, allowing Skeleton Crew to cultivate your unique difference. Here, no political intrigues like in Andoreternal moral question of the Jedi as in The Acolyte or (for now, at least) fan service laborious as in Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Skeleton Crew opts for a lighter tone, populated by space pirates, mysterious maps, grumpy robots and adorable protagonists. With its fantastic creatures and its archetypal story close to Tom Sawyer, Peter Pan or Treasure Islandthe show thus offers itself a rather brilliant cocktail of mystery and adventure.

The story also seems to have some twists and turns and major tricks up its sleeve, whether on the enigmatic Jod Na Nawood played by Jude Law, the home planet of our heroes and the intergalactic legends that float in the air. Some fans will even be able to make a connection between the spirit Skeleton Crew and the handful of seconds at the end of Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jediwhich showed children telling stories using DIY figurines.

And this is undoubtedly the most promising thing: through the eyes of these improbable heroes, we find a part of the wonder and jubilation that could have been missing in the last Star Wars series. With the desire to see more, which is always a good sign.

Although we will have to wait to see more episodes (not just the first three) and obviously to judge this series on its entirety, we are happy to be able to write that Skeleton Crew for the moment gives the impression of having succeeded in its bet and heals our fan hearts a little.

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is available from December 3 on Disney+.

• Watch the trailer for the series: