Skeleton Crew review: "Perfectly captures the vibes of classic Star Wars with a swashbuckling twist"

Stop me if you've heard this one before: a starry-eyed youngster trapped on a boring planet where big dreams go to die secretly yearns for adventure, while the authority figures in their life tell them to get back to work. No, I'm not talking about Luke, Anakin, or Rey Skywalker – I'm talking about Wim, a kid living in the stifling suburbia of his planet At Attin. Here, one test will dictate the course of his entire life, and none of the career paths open to him lead to adventure.

Everything changes for the Jedi-obsessed youngling when he stumbles upon a strange object buried in the woods. He's convinced it's a Jedi Temple, but it turns out to be an abandoned starship. Together with his best pal Neel and neighborhood kids Fern and KB, Wim ends up accidentally blasting off into hyperspace with only the malfunctioning, cantankerous droid SM-33 for company. Lost alone in space, they'll have to find their way home – only, their droid has no record of At Attin in his memory bank, and everyone else seems convinced it's actually the fabled home of eternal treasure.

Skeleton Crew, then, perfectly captures the vibes of classic Star Wars – even the opening scene is a homage to Darth Vader's iconic entrance in A New Hope, while Wim racing to catch up to a missed school bus echoes the speeder bike chase in Return of the Jedi – but with a swashbuckling twist. Yep, Skeleton Crew is all about pirates, and, in the three episodes made available to critics, it's a good old-fashioned, fun adventure story.

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Sailing the galaxy's seas

There's more than a touch of Amblin to Skeleton Crew, with the young, bicycle-riding cast bickering in an endearingly juvenile way – calling "claimsies" on the buried spaceship – before quickly discovering they're in way over their heads. The young actors are each fantastic, creating a charmingly rag-tag crew: there's the daydreamer Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), the adorable Neel (Robert Timothy Smith), the formidable Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), and the tech-savvy KB (Kyriana Kratter). Wim's harried father (played by Tunde Adebimpe) is busy with work and urges his son to "can it with this Jedi Temple nonsense," while Kerry Condon's Undersecretary Fara is so concerned with her daughter Fern's academic prowess that she's obviously smothering her. But, none of the parents are monsters, either, all worried sick about their missing kids – it's the timeless tale of misunderstood children and overbearing parents who only want what's best for them.

And the kids do find the adventure they seek, though they've bitten off more than they can chew. In their quest to return home, SM-33 (expertly voiced by Nick Frost) takes them to an outpost which, to borrow the phrase, is truly a wretched hive of scum and villainy. This is where Skeleton Crew really begins to come into its own, with the eccentric pirates taking a keen interest in the younglings, especially when Wim reveals he's in possession of some Old Republic credits. All the pirates want a piece of At Attin, but no one can find it – which squares with the overprotectiveness and security camera-headed droids the gang left behind, and also sets up a fascinating mystery about legendary, lost treasure and the strangely isolated planet it might reside upon (the kids don't even know a war recently rocked the galaxy).

The younglings get thrown in the brig, but a mysterious stranger comes to their aid with the Force… how lucky, right? Well, maybe not, because it seems highly doubtful this stranger is who he claims to be, as much as Wim yearns to meet a real Jedi. This cloaked newcomer is Jod, played with sly, fast-talking charm by Jude Law. We don't see a whole lot of him yet, but what we do learn about him sets him up as a self-interested, morally gray character who could help these kids get home or ruthlessly betray them. It's intriguingly up in the air.

With the stunning VFX we've come to expect from Star Wars on the small screen, a rock solid cast of characters, and some adorable creatures to boot, Skeleton Crew is poised to be a stellar addition to Star Wars TV, as long as it keeps up this momentum across the rest of its eight episode run. Adventure awaits…

Skeleton Crew arrives on Disney Plus this December 2 in the US and December 3 in the UK. You can use our Skeleton Crew release schedule to keep up to date.

In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies and shows for everything else that's in store, or see our roundup of the best shows on Disney Plus to fill out your watchlist.