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Last week saw the triumphant return of the third season of The Mandalorian, the Disney plus phenomenon created by Jon Favreau, after a more than two year absence from your screens. The episode was filled with buzz worthy moments as expected and set up threads for later in the season, but the episode also seemed to set up the Mando spin-off series, Skeleton Crew.

Over the past few months, various rumours pertaining to Skeleton Crew, a Mandalorian spin-off series created by Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home) and Christopher Ford (Chaos Walking), have made their way online. We know officially that the series will follow a group of children, along with Jude Law (Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore), trying to find their way back home after being lost in the galaxy, and that the series itself is inspired by classic eighties Amblin movies such as The Goonies. Recent reports from MakingStarWars.net claim that the series will feature pirates, and that they could be the catalyst for the children and their teacher (Jude Law) becoming lost either in a part of the galaxy we’ve never seen before or in a completely new galaxy with the location also rumoured to feature in another Mando spin-off, Ahsoka.

The first episode of The Mandalorian season three took us back to Nevarro where we were reunited with Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) who was forced to defend a school from a group of pirates demanding to drink inside the establishment as it was once a bar before Karga revitalised the local area. During this scene I couldn’t help but think of what we know, or at least what we think we know about Skeleton Crew – a series which reportedly see’s a teacher (Law) and a group of students coming into conflict with a gaggle of pirates. I couldn’t help but wonder if THIS is the school that Jude Law‘s character works at and the group of children we’ll follow attend. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any hard answers regarding this question, but it seems too much of a coincidence to me and what better way to set up your Mando spin-off, by having a location viewers are familiar with (Nevarro) thanks to the flagship series and possible villains being introduced within that series.

Though I unfortunately couldn’t get any confirmation on whether or not the Nevarro school is where Jude Law’s teacher character works, I did get a response regarding pirates seen in the episode possibly being the ones appearing in Skeleton Crew. Details are very sparse, but I was told by sources that they believe pirates (or at least a pirate) seen in Chapter 17: The Apostate would appear in Skeleton Crew as villains of the series. I don’t know for sure which pirates would appear, but i’d guess (just a guest) Pirate King Gorian Shard (the big green fella), will be one of the pirates appearing in Skeleton Crew and that he could be a leading antagonist. A more likely candidate is the pirate leading the charge to drink inside of the school, I t’s also with mentioning that both myself and MakingStarWars.net heard that a Nikto pirate would feature in Skeleton Crew, so I wonder if Vane will also feature in the upcoming series. In addition, MakingStarWars previously mentioned hearing that other classic Star Wars species such as Weequay’s, Mol Calamarian’s, Rodian’s and more will appear as pirates in Skeleton Crew.

Aside from production issues, I’ve heard very little on Skeleton Crew as details on the series have been locked down. I’ve heard mixed things regarding the series with some sources calling it “campy” and told me to think more Book of Boba Fett than The Mandalorian, but I’ve also been told that the series is “good” and “fun”. Film is subjective, and if those pirates didn’t work for you in The Mandalorian season three’s opener, then I can understand why you might not be pumped for Skeleton Crew, but personally it got me more excited for the series and I can definitely see Gorian Shard and Vane working as fun antagonists in an eighties inspired series focusing on a group of kids.

Skeleton Crew is slated to release sometime this year, and from what I’ve heard that is most definitely still the case at this time, but it’ll much later in the year – around November/December. The series will stream exclusively on Disney+.

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