Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Episode 1.
The rumors are true. Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is exactly what you would expect from a series that has been heralded as a mash-up of classic Amblin and Star Wars. Episode 1, written by series creators Christopher Ford and Jon Watts, delivers all of that and a little more as it kicks things off aboard a bulk freighter that is being commandeered by a band of deadly pirates.
Set sometime after Return of the Jedi and the fall of the Empire, Skeleton Crew reunites audiences with an unscrupulous pirate who previously appeared on The Mandalorian to cause trouble for Mando and Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) on Nevarro. Here, Vane (Marti Matulis) is a member of Captain Silvo’s (definitely not Jude Law) crew who comes aboard the freighter in search of credits, alongside Gunter (Jaleel White), Brutus (Fred Tatasciore, Stephen Oyoung), Pax (Mike Estes), and Chaelt (Dale Soules).
Captain Silvo is convinced that the freighter must be carrying a significant amount of credits since their vault has been magnetically sealed, and has promised his crew a sizable payout for commandeering the vessel. Unfortunately for Captain Silvo, his instincts prove to be wrong, and his crew turns on him in an act of mutiny for the lives lost in pursuit of a single credit. The premiere doesn’t revisit this element of the story for the remainder of the episode, leaving the cold open on ice as it trades galactic plundering for slice-of-life suburbia.
“Since the fall of the EMPIRE, the NEW REPUBLIC has maintained order. And yet, remote hyperspace routes are increasingly plagued by piracy. These PIRATES boldly brand their armored hulls as a sign to all ships. Surrender or die…”
‘Skeleton Crew’ Episode 1 Welcomes Us to At Attin
One could argue that Ben Solo (Adam Driver) was probably a latchkey kid while his father avoided being a father and his mother tried to piece the galaxy back together, but Skeleton Crew offers up the franchise’s first true latchkey kid in one of its pint-sized leads, Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers). The Disney+ series also pays homage to the children that Star Wars fans once were (and remain at heart) as Wim gleefully plays with his Jedi action figures, acting out an epic battle before he heads down to eat a hearty breakfast of cereal and blue milk. His father (Tunde Adebimpe) throws a handful of credits down on the table and mentions that work will be keeping him late for the next few nights, so Wim will need to take care of himself.
On his way to the tram stop, Wim meets up with his friend Neel (Robert Timothy Smith) and the pair pretend to duel with their lightsabers as children are wont to do, even in the Star Wars universe. The first half of Episode 1 does an excellent job of setting up the world around Wim and his friends, and it’s necessary because we have never seen a planet quite like this one in all the franchise’s myriad movies, series, and ancillary media. There are quaint cul-de-sacs, frogdogs barking at children, highways and underpasses, trams, and slick hoverbikes, the latter of which catches Wim’s attention. As Neel and Wim sit at the back of the tram to school, Wim notices Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) and KB (Kyriana Kratter) racing on their hoverbike.
Once the children get to school, Skeleton Crew sets up a few different dynamics with each of the young leads. Fern and KB are troublemakers; Neel is a good student with a crush on their classmate, Roonie; and Wim is just scraping by in class. It’s very Breakfast Club meets Star Wars. Ford and Watts also cleverly incorporate another old-school 1980s-style trope of having Undersecretary Fara (Kerry Condon) show up to talk to the students about the Career Assessment Test, which will be held the following day. The test is designed to identify which career paths the children should embark on to contribute to the “Great Work” on their planet At Attin. The students are questioned about what they want to be when they grow up, and they all aspire to very bureaucratic jobs, like senior statistical accountant or analyst. When Wim is called upon, he is clearly unprepared, but he manages to describe his desire to help people in bad situations and keep them safe. Unfortunately, this is also the type of job a safety droid would do, and he gets teased by his peers. Later, Neel jokes that Wim just wants to be a Jedi, and given how obsessed his friend is, he isn’t wrong.
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Fern Is a Rebel Without a Cause in ‘Star Wars: Skeleton Crew’ Episode 1
After class, Skeleton Crew shows the kids heading back to their respective homes, which sheds even more light on who these children are at a base level. Neel comes from a large, loving family, who welcome him home with open arms and plenty of treats; Wim arrives at an empty house to fend for himself; and Fern is Undersecretary Fara’s daughter.
Fern runs into a lick of trouble on her way home when her hoverbike breaks down. She and KB try to get it fixed while dealing with bullies mocking them for their “baby toys,” but the power converter is busted and there’s no easy fix. There’s a big race coming up over the weekend, and Fern is determined to “act tough” and prove the bullies wrong. She rushes home, changing out of her tough girl clothes on the way, and is nearly thwarted in her attempt at hiding where she has been and what she has been doing because her mother came home early. It’s clear that Fern doesn’t want to disappoint her mother, but it also seems as though her mother has plans for her that don’t necessarily line up with who Fern wants to be. Namely, Fern has clear aspirations to dream bigger than At Attin, but Fara likely wants her to be another cog in the New Republic’s machine.
Wim Just Can’t Win in ‘Star Wars: Skeleton Crew’ Episode 1
When Wim’s father finally comes home from work, Wim has been studying and trying his best to prepare for the Career Assessment Test. As he winds down for the night, Wim asks his father to read him a bedtime story like his mom used to, but his father still has work to do, and besides, isn’t he getting too old for that kind of thing? It’s a tale as old as time when it comes to coming-of-age stories. Wim’s late-night study session winds up doing him more harm than good, as he oversleeps and misses the tram to school. Having seen Fern and KB take a shortcut, Wim runs back home to get his own hoverbike, in hopes of making it to class before the test begins. But that just isn’t in the cards for Wim. Instead of finding a shortcut, Wim goes over the side of a ravine and discovers something hidden beneath the brush. Before Wim can fully investigate his mysterious find, he is discovered by one of the school’s droids and brought to school to be punished for missing the test.
Skeleton Crew lives up to the Breakfast Club comparison, as Wim and Fern have their serendipitous first encounter outside of the Star Wars equivalent of the principal’s office. While Wim waits for his father to finish talking to the school’s Proctor about his delinquency, he tells Fern about why he was late for class, and how he’s convinced he discovered a hidden Jedi Temple. Fern dismisses his theory, but she certainly hasn’t dismissed the fact that there’s something old and interesting out in the woods.
After his father convinces the Proctor to let Wim retake the test the following day, Wim is told to head home to study while his father heads back to work. But of course, Wim has other plans. He sneaks over to Neel’s home, interrupting a perfectly good post-school bubble bath, and convinces Neel to venture out into the wilderness so they can investigate whatever Wim found. Neel might seem like a model student, but even he can’t resist the promise of a real adventure. As the sun sets, the pair set out, only to discover that someone else has found the mysterious site already. Fern and KB try to spook the boys into leaving but eventually manage to convince them to stick around and work for them. Even in Star Wars, girls know how to get the boys to do their dirty work for them.
‘Star Wars: Skeleton Crew’s Kids Get in Over Their Heads in Episode 1
Darkness has fallen by the time the boys move enough dirt away from the entrance to pop it open and peer inside. It’s around this time that Wim’s father has discovered his son missing and has ventured out into the forest to find him. Hearing an adult coming prompts the kids to hide inside the “Jedi Temple.” Inside, Wim discovers a dead droid clutching a lever (which he initially mistakes for a skeleton, living up to the series title) and Fern warns him not to pull the lever, which prompts the pair to start arguing. While they argue, Neel gets up close and personal with the droid and accidentally spooks a small rodent-like creature that jumps out of the droid’s cranium and causes the lever to be pulled. The lever closes the hatch they came through, trapping the children inside what is actually a large ship.
The last ten minutes of the episode see the kids poking around the ship, trying to find a way out while worrying about things like running out of air and not having any supplies to survive. Unsurprisingly, Wim and Fern butt heads, which is natural since she seems to be the oldest of the group, and far more practical than Wim with all of his delusions of grandeur. However, Wim is the one to find the ship’s bridge, and that spells instant disaster for the kids. Fern warns him about not touching anything, since KB has finally got the power up and will be able to get the hatch open soon. But Wim just can’t resist the impulsive urge to press a flashing button. The ship jolts to life (and so does the droid) and before they can get safely out of the hatch, the ship is already rising high into the sky. Wim’s father watches from the ground as his son dangles out of the hatch before the rest of the kids manage to get him safely back inside, and the ship takes off toward the barrier above At Attin.
Episode 1 of Skeleton Crew draws to a close with its young leads crowded into the ship’s bridge, seeing the stars for the very first time. No matter how many times Star Wars does it, watching characters experience space with childlike wonder will never get old—especially when it’s wonder from a child.
The first two episodes of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew are streaming now on Disney+. New episodes drop at 9 PM ET every Tuesday.
Star Wars goes to suburbia in Skeleton Crew Episode 1.
- Skeleton Crew does an incredible amount of worldbuilding with its first episode, painting a clear picture of what kind of planet At Attin is, how it fits into the New Republic, and what it looks like.
- Similarly, the series does a wonderful job introducing its young cast of characters, even if they do rely upon tropes and caricatures to get the point across.
- Skeleton Crew feels like a Star Wars series for children, while still catering to adults who are still children at heart, too.
- While the cold open with the pirates made for an exciting introduction to the series, it felt a little disconnected from the remainder of the episode.
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