Kerry Condon has shared details about filming the upcoming live-action television series Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. Originally slated to debut in late 2023, the Amblin-style series set in the same time period as The Mandalorian is now expected to release in late 2024. It will follow a group of four children who get lost in the galaxy after making an important discovery and must find their way home.
While Condon most recently gained recognition for her Oscar-nominated performance in The Banshees of Inisherin, she has been in many films, television series, and stage productions for over two decades. Skeleton Crew is her Star Wars debut, but she has already been part of several popular franchises.
She played the recurring role of Stacey Ehrmantraut in all six seasons of the Breaking Bad prequel series Better Call Saul, voiced Tony Stark's artificial intelligence assistant F.R.I.D.A.Y in five Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, and appeared in 3 episodes of The Walking Dead season 4 as a character named Clara.
In an interview with Variety, Condon discussed her experience on the set of Skeleton Crew while praising her co-stars and those working behind the cameras. Read Condon's comments below:
"It’s so great. I don’t even have kids, but I’d pay to see this. I loved it. I loved being on it. There was something about it that was so innocent and playful and lovely. People say don’t work with kids or animals, but I don’t know about that. And also when children are good actors, they’re kind of out-of-this-world good. So watching some of the kids’ scenes, it was amazing. Jude Law’s in it, and I’ve worked with him before. But it’s really adventurous and they got such great directors for each episode – the Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), Bryce Dallas Howard, Lee Isaac Chung, David Lowery. It was a pretty amazing group. And of course, Jon Watts who created the whole thing. "
Kerry Condon Makes Skeleton Crew Even More Exciting Than It Already Was
Between its Amblin influences, connections to the Mandoverse, the talented involved, and the mystery surrounding it, Skeleton Crew was already an exciting prospect, but Condon's comments, particularly her comments about the child actors, only make it even more intriguing.
Since Jake Lloyd's portrayal of nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace, there haven't been many live-action Star Wars stories with child actors at the forefront. The most prominent examples since then would be Vivien Lyra Blair as young Leia Organa in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series and Evan Whitten as Jacen Syndulla in Ahsoka.
Skeleton Crew will be breaking new ground for the franchise by having four child actors at the center of the story. It will also be new ground as they are expected to be playing brand new characters, unlike Anakin, Leia, or Jacen, who'd already been introduced in other stories.
Condon's praise and admiration for Skeleton Crew's child actors make this prospect promising, as does describing the tone as "innocent and playful and lovely" and "adventurous." These factors may make Skeleton Crew more appealing and accessible to younger viewers than some other live-action Star Wars stories while also engaging for older fans.
In addition to the younger characters, it will be thrilling to see who Condon is playing, along with Jude Law, as the only thing known about his character is that he is a Force user. Showrunner Jon Watts directed the MCU's Spider-Man movies starring Tom Holland, all of which perfectly balanced the young adult and adult characters, a dynamic that Watts can also bring to Skeleton Crew.
In terms of the directors, Bryce Dallas Howard has directed some of the best live-action Star Wars television episodes, including Bo-Katan Kryze's live-action debut in The Mandalorian season 2 episode "The Heiress." Howard will surely helm another memorable entry in Skeleton Crew. Lee Isaac Chung directed The Mandalorian season 3 episode "The Convert," a personal favorite of mine for its nuanced exploration of the New Republic through the eyes of Dr. Penn Pershing, along with the riveting dogfight at the beginning of the episode as Din Djarin and Bo-Katan face off against TIE interceptors.
Directors Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, and David Lowery are newcomers to Star Wars, as is Jake Schreier, who is not mentioned in Condon's comments. The Daniels directed the Oscar-winning Everything Everywhere All at Once, and it will be intriguing to see if their absurdist comedy-drama leanings translate to Star Wars. Lowery and Schreier have diverse bodies of work, including Schreier directing numerous music videos, which present many possibilities for what their episodes will look like.
As for connections to other Star Wars stories, the pirate Vane from The Mandalorian season 3 will be in Skeleton Crew. No other established characters are confirmed to appear, but other Mandoverse characters are certainly a possibility.
The Bad Batch series finale, Tales of the Empire, and The Acolyte are all being released before Skeleton Crew, but Condon's comments and the series' many possibilities make it seem that the wait will be worth it.