Telling new stories in a franchise as beloved as Star Wars is no easy feat. Would The Mandalorian, for example, have been as popular had it focused solely on bounty hunters rather than introducing Grogu and featuring appearances from the likes of Luke Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano?
We'll never know, but with fans rejecting the High Republic era and The Acolyte, it was clear Skeleton Crew would have its work cut out for it (even with a post-Return of the Jedi setting).
The series - focused on a group of kids who get lost in the Galaxy Far, Far Away - has received positive reviews from fans and critics alike. However, that hasn't translated into strong viewership numbers.
According to Nielsen's streaming data, Skeleton Crew receive the lowest viewership of any Star Wars TV show's premiere in its first week on Disney+.
The two-episode premiere is said to have generated less than 382 million minutes watched (episode 1 clocked in at 46 minutes, while the second instalment was 29 minutes). That figure is 20% beneath The Acolyte, and a long way off the likes of The Mandalorian and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
For context, The Mandalorian season 3 received 823 million minutes watched, Obi-Wan Kenobi had 1.026 billion minutes watched, and Andor's three-episode debut scored 624 million minutes watched.
The Acolyte received 488 million minutes watched for its two-episode premiere, leaving Skeleton Crew in the same ballpark as The Book of Boba Fett (389 million minutes watched with a one-episode debut).
How much does this matter? Well, these aren't official streaming numbers and should be used more as an indicator of how many people tuned in. Skeleton Crew viewership has clearly not been high, though, suggesting a second season will be off the table (so, fingers crossed tonight's finale doesn't end with another unresolved cliffhanger).
Addressing potential plans for Skeleton Crew season 2 last year, Jon Watts said, "We 100% have an idea for a second season and know what we would do. [...] We have a built-in ticking clock of the kids and their age, and by the time we would get production going, we know what age they would be. So, we would be writing towards that."
"You’ll be growing up with the kids. It would be something like [a three to four-year time jump] to make sense. We haven’t seen the kids in a while, so it just depends on how tall the kids are," the filmmaker continued. "But we wouldn’t do like a Stranger Things thing where we’re like 'It’s the next day,' because it won’t be."
Will you be tuning in for Skeleton Crew's season 1 finale this evening?