Star Wars: Skeleton Crew met with praise – but critics are divided over one thing

The first two episodes may pander too much to 1980s nostalgia

The reviews are in for the first two episodes of the newly-released Disney+ series Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.

Set parallel to the events of The Mandalorian, Skeleton Crew follows the adventures of four children who become lost in a vast universe and must find their way back to their home planet.

The show is directed by John Watts (Spider-Man: Homecoming) and David Lowery (The Green Knight) and stars Jude Law as the mysterious and grizzled Jod Na Narwood.

Nick Frost voices SM-33, a pirate robo, while rising stars Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Kyriana Kratter, and Robert Timothy Smith play the lost children.

The show, which is the first Star Wars project to be released since the now-cancelled series The Acolyte, is receiving mostly positive reviews – but it’s being suggested that it’s too similar in tone to another streaming hit.

Rolling Stone called Skeleton Crew a “solidly-crafted piece of all-ages entertainment” that’s “telling an actual story.”

The nostalgia featured in the series has draw comparisons to Netflix hit Stranger Things, with the outlet noting the real-world neighbourhood featured at the start of the show is “blatantly modelled on the one from ET”.

‘Skeleton Crew’ is getting middling reviews (Disney+)

“The tropes deployed here are some of the most well-trodden ground in recent pop-culture history. We’ve lived through more than a decade of 1980s pastiche,” wrote Ali Griffiths for Digital Spy.

IGN’s Sam Barsanti rated the premier episodes a solid seven out of a possible 10, writing: “The kids are all pretty broad in terms of characterisation and performance”, but said they were “likeable, which is not always a given in the Star Wars canon”.

Variety’s Alison Herman wrote that, although the show could be seen as overly nostalgic and pandering, it’s ultimately an enjoyable, swashbuckling, sci-fi romp.

Herman’s review read: “If Skeleton Crew can sometimes show signs of such coldly rational reverse engineering, the charm of its cast and their infectious sense of wonder goes a long way toward selling the endeavour.”

The fans agree with the generally rosy critic reviews. Rotten Tomatoes has placed critic reviews at a very respectable 81 per cent with audience reviews after the first two episodes sitting high with a stellar 93 per cent.

However, it is worth noting that these are based on a limited amount of reviews and scores are liable to change as more people stream the new series.

Six more episodes of Skeleton Crew are set to air, bringing the series to eight episodes in total. New episodes stream weekly on Tuesdays until 14 January 2025.