Skeleton Crew Rotten Tomatoes Score Is Higher Than Almost Every Star Wars Movie and TV Show

The Force is strong with Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. Billed as a “Star Wars adventure” that is inspired by classic coming of age Amblin movies like The Goonies and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the series follows the journey of four kids — Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), KB (Kyriana Kratter), and Neel (Robert Timothy Smith) — who get lost in a strange and dangerous galaxy after making a mysterious discovery on their home planet of At Attin. Pursued by treasure-seeking pirates, they navigate their way home with the help of droid SM-33 (Nick Frost) and the enigmatic scoundrel and Force user Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law).

The largely standalone series from creators Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home) and Chris Ford (Spider-Man: Homecoming) has been well-received by critics, with reviewers giving Skeleton Crew a 95 percent “Certified Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That’s not only higher than all three seasons of The Mandalorian, which scored 93 percent for its first two seasons and 85 percent for its third, but Skeleton Crew has fared better critically than almost every other live-action Star Wars series.

[RELATED: All the Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Easter Eggs and References You Might’ve Missed, From Captain EO to Pirates of the Caribbean]

So far, Skeleton Crew has a higher score than Ahsoka (86 percent), Obi-Wan Kenobi (82 percent), The Acolyte (78 percent), and The Book of Boba Fett (the lowest at 66 percent “fresh”). Only Andor was better received at 96 percent. Of the dozen Star Wars movies released theatrically since 1977, only one ranks on par with Skeleton Crew on Rotten Tomatoes: 1980’s Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back at 95 percent. 1977’s A New Hope and 2015’s The Force Awakens tie for second place at 93 percent, followed by 2017’s The Last Jedi at 91 percent.

2015 spinoff Rogue One, 1983’s Return of the Jedi, and 2005’s Revenge of the Sith are the last of the Star Wars movies to receive the “Certified Fresh” distinction at 84 percent, 82 percent, and 80 percent, respectively. 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story is “Fresh” at 69 percent, while 2002’s Attack of the Clones is “Fresh” at 65 percent. 1999’s The Phantom Menace is “Rotten” at 52 percent, just above 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker at 51 percent. The worst-rated Star Wars movie is 2008’s animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which is at a mere 15 percent.

The critics’ consensus: “Evoking childlike wonder, Skeleton Crew is a swashbuckling Star Wars adventure that refreshingly keeps things simple.” ComicBook critic Charlie Ridgely gave Skeleton Crew 4 out of 5 stars, calling the nostalgic adventure series “the young, fresh energy the galaxy desperately needed”.

“It’s fun to watch their characters figure one another out on the fly, trying to deal with very kid-level issues while also making sense of this completely new world they’ve been thrust into,” the review reads. “That youthful energy from the characters helps give the audience the energy and sense of wonder that we’ve been missing the last several years. By letting these fascinating, complicated, and very curious kids be our gateway into the story, Skeleton Crew tosses aside the cynicism of adulthood and fan culture, replicating that feeling of watching something like Star Wars for the very first time. Now, Skeleton Crew isn’t the same kind of revolutionary experience as George Lucas’s 1977 sci-fi classic, but it invokes some of the same feelings, which is still a huge win for the franchise.”

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is directed by Watts (Wolfs), David Lowery (Peter Pan & Wendy), the Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once), Jake Schreier (Marvel’s Thunderbolts*), Bryce Dallas Howard (The Mandalorian), and Lee Isaac Chung (Twisters), and is executive produced by Watts and Ford with Jon Favreau (The Mandalorian & Grogu), Dave Filoni (Ahsoka), Kathleen Kennedy (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny), and Colin Wilson (Avatar).

New episodes of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew premiere Tuesdays on Disney+ through Jan. 14, 2025.