Jude Law as Jod Na Nawood with his hands held high in 'Star Wars: Skeleton Crew'
(Disney+)

‘Our twist was this anti-twist’: ‘Skeleton Crew’s beauty lies in its simplicity—and leaves the door open for season 2

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew has officially reached the finish line on Disney+, leaving fans to wonder if there are any season 2 renewal prospects. But regardless of whether or not a second season sees the light of day, you can’t deny that the Skeleton Crew finale was exceedingly simplistic—and that’s a good thing.

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Warning! Spoilers ahead for Skeleton Crew season 1, episode 8, “The Real Good Guys.”

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Star Wars has been bogged down by—perhaps, too many—fan theories in recent years. Dave Filoni’s “Mandoverse” consists of several The Clone Wars deep cuts, while The Acolyte, Disney’s ill-fated foray into the High Republic era, failed to make waves with audiences. With all this in mind, it makes sense that Lucasfilm would want to return to the basics, and Skeleton Crew certainly delivered a nostalgia-packed adventure that left viewers unusually satisfied, given the current state of the fandom. Why? Because it actually had a conclusive ending.

Skeleton Crew just gets it—Star Wars doesn’t have to be that complicated

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, showrunners Jon Watts and Christopher Ford explained why they went with a pretty by-the-books finale for Skeleton Crew, and honestly, I commend their answer. You see, I think everyone expected Jude Law’s pirate character, Jod Na Nawood, to ditch his conniving ways to help the At Attin kids. Redemption arcs are all too common in the Star Wars/Marvel sphere these days, with Jod’s shadowy past as a Jedi indicating that he may have a change of heart, à la Obi-Wan Kenobi‘s Reva (Moses Ingram). Hell, some fans even speculated that Jod was the Padawan Petro (Jeff Fischer) from the Clone Wars episode, “The Gathering.”

Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. Instead, Skeleton Crew provided something modern audiences haven’t seen in years: a bad guy who’s genuinely just a bad guy. “We knew that that character archetype was part of Star Wars, so we wanted to play with it, and especially the whole ‘Is he a Jedi or not?’ thing,” Ford said of Jod’s character arc. “Is he good or bad? And so our twist was this anti-twist, that he was exactly as he presented to be. Seemingly.”

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew ended exactly when it needed to

It’s also worth mentioning that there are no post-credits scenes at the end of Skeleton Crew—hallelujah! These aren’t necessarily bad things, per se, but it does help audiences manage expectations if this is really the last we’ll see of Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), our precious boy, Neel (Robert Timothy Smith), KB (Kyriana Kratter), Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers) & Co. I love that Watts and Ford didn’t try to overcomplicate things with a bloated ending by fleshing out some tragic backstory about how Jod survived Order 66 or showed the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu landing on At Attin. Going out on a high note is totally wizard, but it sounds like the show’s creators do have some ideas if Disney and Lucasfilm decide to revisit Skeleton Crew’s corner of the universe.

Given the state of media today, I think it’s become more of an advantage than a disadvantage to give TV shows a clean cut after each season. We’ve seen Disney+ and Netflix, in particular, cancel popular series at the drop of a hat with little to no hope for renewal, making the importance of properly ending a story all the more vital. Whether or not this is a good thing is up for debate, but what I will say is that it certainly worked in Skeleton Crew’s favor. If Disney does greenlight a second season, yay! But if not, our heroes got their happy ending, and the showrunners sufficiently dotted their i’s and crossed their t’s.

In my opinion, I don’t see Skeleton Crew being renewed for an additional eight-episode season. What I do see happening, though, is the inclusion of Jod in the Mandoverse—potentially, as an outlaw recruited by Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) to help take down Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen). After all, Star Wars loves a redemption arc, and since Skeleton Crew left Jod in a pretty ambiguous place post-finale, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him pop up again in the future. Considering that Jod is a Force user, he could prove valuable to the New Republic’s fight against the Imperial Remnant. But for now, we’ll just have to wait and see if Lucasfilm has bigger plans in mind for this rag-tag crew.


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Image of Amanda Landwehr
Amanda Landwehr
Amanda is a Los Angeles-based entertainment writer who lives and breathes Star Wars, Marvel, and all things pop culture. She has worked in digital media since 2021, covering the latest movie/TV releases, casting updates, politics, fan theories, and so, so much more. When she's not rotting away behind her laptop screen, you can typically catch Amanda maxing out her AMC Stubs membership.