Lucasfilm and Disney have dropped a new trailer for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew – and, if there were still any doubts, it’s definitely going for a ‘Star Wars meets Goonies‘ vibe.
Due to launch on Disney Plus in early December, the last of 2024’s new Star Wars TV shows and movies looks equal parts cute, thrilling, dramatic, and action-packed in a teaser set to Peter Schilling’s ‘Major Tom (Coming Home)’ song, albeit one that appears to have been translated into Huttese. It also seems as though it’s leaning heavily into the grimy, criminal underworld aesthetic that was a hallmark of the iconic sci-fi franchise’s early years, too, which will surely appeal to older Star Wars fans, some of whom – alongside younger viewers – weren’t exactly enamored with Star Wars: The Acolyte earlier this year.
If you’re a little baffled about what Skeleton Crew‘s story is about – let’s be honest, fun as its latest trailer looks, it’s hard to determine its plot – don’t worry, because I’m here to help. Essentially, it follows four kids called Wim (played by Ravi Cabot-Conyers), Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), KB (Kyriana Kratter), and Neel (Robert Timothy Smith), who get lost in that famous galaxy far, far away. How do they do so? Well, they find a spaceship buried on their home planet and, after somehow excavating it without any adults finding out, accidentally kickstart its engines and hyperdrive, and wind up in a distant and dangerous part of the cosmos.
But fear not for their safety, because Jude Law’s enigmatic rogue Jod Na Nawood, who some observers are already theorizing is a Jedi – or, at the very least, a Force wielder – offers to help them get back home. I suspect, though, that he’ll want something in return, and that something could be the very spaceship that the quartet originally found.
#SkeletonCrew is streaming December 3, with a two-episode series premiere, only on @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/Cvwjbg5tiXNovember 1, 2024
This isn’t our first official look at Skeleton Crew. In August, Lucasfilm and Disney debuted the sci-fi series’ first trailer, which was one of nine big announcements we were most excited to see at D23 Expo 2024. That teaser arrived nine days after Star Wars: Skeleton Crew‘s official release date was announced alongside some first-look images at its adorable kid characters. For those who didn’t read about when it’ll take flight on Disney Plus, aka one of the world’s best streaming services, in the above X/Twitter post, it’ll arrive on December 3 (US) and December 4 (UK and Australia) with a two-episode premiere.
Joining Law and his young co-stars on the cast roster are Kerry Condon and Tunde Adebimpe – the latter of whom, as confirmed in this new trailer, is playing Wim’s father. It’s unclear who Condon’s unnamed character is related to, but I suspect she’ll be mother to Fern or KB. Nick Frost is also part of proceedings, with Simon Pegg’s long-time collaborator voicing the droid known as SM-33.
Jon Watts, who directed the first three Spider-Man movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has co-created Skeleton Crew with Christopher Ford, who wrote the script for Spider-Man: Homecoming. The pair have assembled a truly talented line-up of directors for this project, too, with The Green Knight‘s David Lowery, Beef and Thunderbolts filmmaker Jake Schreier, The Mandalorian veterans Bryce Dallas Howard and Lee Isaac Chung, and the Daniels – Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert – helming its episodes. The latter duo’s involvement is particularly exciting, especially in light of their work on multi-Oscar winner Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Clearly, Skeleton Crew has a ton of star power attached to it, but will its narrative hold up and earn it a spot on our best Disney Plus shows list? I hope so, but my colleague Rob Dunne believes Skeleton Crew already has a lot of convincing to do. I wonder if this new trailer will make him change his mind.