More than anything, Watts wants to make it clear that Skeleton Crew isn’t looking to distract viewers with massive surprises or references to other Star Wars stories. “I don’t want people to think that there’s going to be some insane cameo in the middle of the show,” he says firmly. And then, Ford adds, “Yeah, not to rule anything out, but Jude isn’t really Palpatine or anything like that.”
A Step Into a Larger World
By the end of the second episode, the kids meet a mysterious adult ally in the form of shadowy Force-user Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law), who may or may not be a Jedi, a former pirate captain, a con artist, or all of the above. As Law points out, the tone of Skeleton Crew will feel decidedly closer to something you can imagine watching with the whole family rather than, say, the more adult grittiness of Andor. And yet, this is still the Star Wars universe, and as Ford insists, the duplicitous character of Jod fits in perfectly with the back-stabbing wretched hives of scum and villainy that comprise a surprisingly large part of the Star Wars mythos.
“Well, Jude’s character could totally be in Andor,” Ford points out, to which Watts adds, “We didn’t want this to feel like a kids’ show. It still has to be an adult world that they’re in.”
Part of the shift in Skeleton Crew comes from a basic point-of-view change. Yes, we happen to be in the same time frame as The Mandalorian, but certain revelations in the show’s first few episodes make it clear that the background of these children and their specific planet creates a unique opportunity to bring characters into the Star Wars galaxy slowly. This isn’t a reboot or a new timeline at all. It’s just the people who are different.
As Obi-Wan Kenobi told Luke in Return of the Jedi, the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view. The fascinating thing about Skeleton Crew is that it truly does shift that point of view in a way that we’ve never quite seen before.
“I think it changes the perspective without changing the world,” Watts explains. “It’s the first time where [Star Wars] is really told through the eyes of four 10-year-old kids. And by doing that, I think it just automatically gives it a new feeling without changing the parts of Star Wars that we already know and love.”