Star Wars: Whatever happened to Skeleton Crew, which was filmed before The Acolyte?

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With Lucasfilm officially announcing the release date for Leslye Headland’s Star Wars series The Acolyte, an obvious — if, perhaps, unexpected — question has been raised: whatever happened to Star Wars: Skeleton Crew?

Officially announced at Star Wars Celebration 2022, Skeleton Crew is a coming-of-age story about four kids lost on a spaceship in the Star Wars galaxy, and their journey back home — accompanied by a Force user who may or may not be a Jedi, as played by Jude Law. The series is set in the same time period as The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka, and the executive producers of those shows (Dave Filoni, Jon Favreau, and Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy) are on board here, alongside series creators Jon Watts and Christopher Ford, who’d previously worked together on Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man movies.

And, just as the kids in the show are lost in space, Skeleton Crew is seemingly lost in the Disney+ schedule.

We know that the series wrapped shooting back in January 2023 — no fewer than six months earlier than the Acolyte wrapped — and that the series was initially anticipated to air in late 2023. A full trailer was shared at Star Wars Celebration 2023, but only for the fans in the room; like a lot of the Celebration footage, it was never released publicly.

In late 2023, it became clear that wasn’t going to happen — but the United States Copyright Office officially stated that January 2024 was an “approximate” publication date for the first episode. That, too, obviously didn’t happen… and somehow, the Acolyte premiere date has been announced without any clue as to where Skeleton Crew has gone. So… what gives?

It’s very possible that post-production work on Skeleton Crew has been impacted by 2023’s writers’ and actors’ strikes to the point where it’s been delayed far past earlier expectations, meaning that its release has been taken off the calendar until things are further along — but it’s also possible that Skeleton Crew is one of the “few projects” that Disney CEO Bob Iger said had been cancelled quietly in the past few months. Back in early March, Iger admitted that Disney had “killed a few projects already that we just didn’t feel were strong enough,” adding, “We’ve not been that public about it.” Could Skeleton Crew have been one of those projects?

All is not lost, however; for some months, there have been rumors that Skeleton Crew is specifically intended to be a holiday-themed show, and is being held back until December 2024 in order to hit just right… which might seem a little counterintuitive given that our holidays don’t exist in the Star Wars galaxy, but stranger things have happened. Alternately, there’s the fact that, as a show tying in with The Mandalorian, Skeleton Crew’s release might be complicated by The Mandalorian being upgraded from a TV show to a movie series, which could prompt the need for reshoots or reworking so as to now spoil any plot developments.

For now, it’s unclear when audiences should expect Skeleton Crew — but whenever it happens, Popverse will be ready to share the news as soon as possible.

Get ready for everything coming up with our guide to upcoming Star Wars movies & TV shows, or dive into the past with our Star Wars watch order.