Skeleton Crew is becoming a fan favorite for many people. We have Neel Nation on our minds and resonate with KB. We hope Wim gets his Jedi moment and take delight in Captain Fern's courage. Rumor is, though, that this is the only season we'll see of the At Attin kids, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Why might Skeleton Crew stop at one season?
If The Acolyte taught us anything, it's that some projects don't make enough of a profit for Disney to invest in a second season. As reported last year, "Disney Entertainment co-chair Alan Bergman told Vulture... that the show's performance didn't justify the cost 'We were happy with our performance, but it wasn't where we needed it to be given the cost structure of that title, quite frankly, to go and make a Season 2." I agree with this opinion that Disney, as "the third richest company in the world... can give a series some time to find its feet." Rewarding a project solely based on cost-benefit analysis robs the world of creative expression.
According to Tom Power on TechRadar, Skeleton Crew "failed to crack Nielsen's Top 10 streaming list for the week running December 9 to 15, 2024" and the data "only relates to US households, so Skeleton Crew's worldwide 'million minutes streamed' haul will be higher than what's reported." The show's premiere viewing was the "lowest total ever for a Star Wars premiere,"
By the numbers, it looks unlikely that there will be another season, but showrunner Christopher Ford said that "We're dreaming of a second season... We've come up with different possibilities, so never say never."
Why is one season of Skeleton Crew not a calamity?
I would love to see the future of At Attin. My greatest hope for the finale involves the possibility of this generational isolation of At Attin ending, which means seeing what it would be like for the pioneering kids taking their next steps into a larger world.
Skeleton Crew has done a remarkable job so far with self-contained storytelling, and that is how Star Wars started. If A New Hope had never seen its sequels, it still would have been a wonderful story about diverse people fighting a battle between good and evil. Luke Skywalker defeated Darth Vader and destroyed the Death Star. Princess Leia endured unimaginable suffering to defy and later vanquish Tarkin. Han Solo started out demanding money and ended up seeing that there were more important things than a payout. I could go on.
All of the kids at the heart of Skeleton Crew have been on journeys that changed them, and the finale will be a culmination of those character arcs. If we don't get a second season, we still have the eight episodes in which Neel came into his own bravery, KB opened herself to a life of authentic friendship, Fern learned not to fear consequences, and Wim protected the innocent like the Jedi of old. I can live with that being as far as the series goes for now, though I will secretly wonder about what the kids were like in college or if they became something like folk heroes in their school. Depending on which ending the pirates get, the continuing adventures of Jod Na Nawood might make a really interesting comic run.
Skeleton Crew is now streaming on Disney+.