He’s had a remarkable career spanning three decades – but Jude Law has never looked like he’s having more fun than in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, the latest swashbuckling adventure from George Lucas’s universe.
As Jod Na Nawood, the sparky, mischievous character tasked with helping a group of lost adolescents find their way home from an alien planet, Law is having an on-screen blast with his young cast that feels infectious.
His talented young co-stars shine in the series, which is centered around them and which evokes nostalgic nods to other stories told through the eyes of children, like The Goonies and ET.
For the British actor, signing up to join the Star Wars universe – let alone on such a fun project – was a no-brainer.
“When I was a child and I was first introduced to this series, I was the prime age in the late ’70s when it came out, and it transformed cinema forever and had a huge impact on how we played and what we played with,” says Law.
“I didn’t really believe the idea of being an actor in a film hit me until I was in my late teens. It seemed like an impossibility. I don’t know that I ever conceived of actually being in one, although I kind of felt like I was in one when I was running around my garden playing with my sister, pretending to be.
“My family were very excited. I have several friends, too, who are very excited that I was stepping into this universe.”
Also starring Irish actress Kerry Condon, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew follows the journey of four kids who make a mysterious discovery on their seemingly safe home planet, only to get lost in a strange and dangerous galaxy. Finding their way home – and meeting unlikely allies and enemies – will be a greater challenge than they could have imagined.
The series creators have told how, from the outset, they were determined that this was an adventure that would take kids seriously as characters. In Law’s initial conversations with writers and producers Jon Watts and Christopher Ford – who previously collaborated on Spider-Man: Homecoming – it was a huge draw for the actor.
“That was absolutely one of the hooks for me,” he says. “I got it immediately. I spoke to John and Chris, and they said: ‘Look, we’ve got this idea the protagonists are children’. I thought that was wonderful. First of all it’s a new perspective on this great canon. It was a perspective that really appealed to me because it linked right back to the little boy I was who was introduced to this world.
“Working with them was honestly an absolute joy. They were so prepared and professional. They’re really sweet kids, and they worked incredibly hard from the get go, they were also great fun. Again, Chris and John set the great precedent of them being allowed to have fun, and that fun should imbue the whole piece. When you let four 11, 12-year-olds play, it’s infectious – and that was the heartbeat of the piece.
“The dynamic we developed very early on which was, I thought, a clever one, was that their relationship with Jod is sort of hot and cold, and he doesn’t really treat them like children. He treats them like these little adults who he doesn’t quite understand. That meant there was some tension there, but it also means there’s some great humour.”
The actor says he himself felt a sense of childlike wonder when it came to immersing himself in the elaborate worlds that are the backbone of a Star Wars movie set. Working on a Star Wars project is a major event in the life of any actor, he says, and the sets can help you lean into the spirit of space adventure.
“It was really on a level I’ve never experienced before,” says the star. “When you’re in this kind of universe where you’ve got to make leaps of imagination – you’re walking on a moon, you’re in a star port, you’re in a dungeon, you’re on a spaceship traveling at hyper speed – it does help.
“It’s an unusual environment to work in. You’re suspending belief and hoping to create some sort of plausibility. And so anything that is right there in front of you, or is within eye range, can help make that a little easier.
“I’d say the same about having on-camera puppetry and animatronics. I think it leans into the esthetic of what made Star Wars work originally.
“A scene I have with the droid in the spaceship, it was just so thrilling to suddenly realise the potential that this puppet had. Working with the wonderful puppeteers, coming up with ideas of how he might move, or what he could do with his fingers or grab me, and how strong he was. You’re just allowing your imagination to run wild.”
- Star Wars: Skeleton Crew episodes one and two are now on Disney+, with new episodes available every Wednesday
The kids are alright in Skeleton Crew, the new Star Wars series centred around the adventures of a group of adolescents who find themselves lost in a galaxy far far away.
And as they immersed themselves in preparation for the series, its young cast was given two classic movie recommendations.
“We were recommended by John and Chris to watch ET and Goonies,” says Ravi Cabot-Conyers, who plays Wim, a youngster with a sense of adventure.
“I had already been familiar with the style, but then we all watched it together. Production set up a little movie area for us to watch it, and it was like it was a bonding experience, while simultaneously being like a learning experience to getting more familiar with the kind of nostalgic 80s ET and Goonies style that we’re going for in the series.”
He and Kyriana Kratter, Robert Timothy Smith, and Ryan Kiera Armstrong lead an excellent young cast in the series, which is told through the eyes and imaginations of the children. But there was room for a few grown-ups, among them Irish actress Kerry Condon.
Fresh from her Oscar nomination for The Banshees of Inisherin, Condon plays New Republic Official Fara – and she made a strong impression among her young co-stars.
“I saw her in The Banshees of Inisherin and I didn’t even realise it was her when I met her for the first time, because she’s such a good actor,” says Kyriana Kratter, who plays KB, a young character with some useful tricks, in the series.
“I remember when we were on set, and I’d just met her, she was asking questions to the director, and she was really engaged, which I thought was so cool. As an actor, I always have so many questions for the director, and it was kind of comforting and nice to see her asking all the questions and getting responses.”
