Skeleton Crew

Rated TV-PG • Disney+

Star Wars fans have been up in arms over Disney’s handling of the franchise—both because it hasn’t created any feature films lately and because the quality of its TV shows has been uneven to say the least. Fan backlash came to a head earlier this year when Disney released The Acolyte, a show that was high on wokeness and low on plot.

Can the franchise’s latest series Skeleton Crew regain the fans’ trust?

It’s a promising sign that Skeleton Crew was created by showrunners Jon Watts and Christopher Ford, the ­creative team responsible for Marvel’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, but since reviewers were only given access to the first three of eight episodes, I can’t speak definitively. Even so, the show seems to be a step in the right direction.

Skeleton Crew follows the exploits of four children who find themselves lost in space and are trying to find their way home. During their travels they get tangled up with space pirates and get some help from a mysterious Force-wielding rogue (Jude Law).

It’s a lighthearted romp that evokes the coming-of-age adventure films of the 1980s. You’ll definitely pick up on some Goonies and E.T. vibes in Skeleton Crew, and there are also plenty of callbacks to the original Star Wars trilogy. There’s even a healthy dose of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean, though I’m not sure why space pirates speak with stereotypical pirate accents. With a one-eyed droid acting as first mate, Skeleton Crew skews toward the sillier side of the Star Wars spectrum.

This series is aimed at a younger audience, so it’s not as gritty as some recent Star Wars shows. But parents ought to know that in the third episode it’s implied one of the lost children has two mothers. Given Disney’s recent track record, if this is the only bit of agenda pushing in the series then fans are getting off easy—but, as I said, I’ve only seen three episodes. I’m hoping the show keeps its focus on the entertaining adventure rather than the culture wars.