‘Skeleton Crew’ Star Jude Law Shares How The Original ‘Star Wars’ Became Such A “Big Part of His Love Affair With Film”

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew star Jude Law says he is checking a major item off his acting bucket list by appearing in a franchise he has loved for decades.

Talking with Decider ahead of the release of his new Disney+ series, the British actor shared that while he loves doing smaller projects with indie filmmakers, he was immediately drawn to the idea of dipping his toe into the Star Wars universe.

“I love a balance of both. You know, I do little independent movies and sometimes those have challenges. And then you take on something like this because, well, I’m curious to see how they’re made. And I have kids myself, so I love the idea of making things that they may want to watch one day. And this particular franchise, this particular universe, was a big part of my love affair with film,” Law shared.

For Law — who was just 5 years old when A New Hope released in theaters — Skeleton Crew feels like a full-circle moment. In the latest Disney+ series, the actor stars as Jod Na Nawood — a.k.a Crimson Jack — a mysterious Force-sensitive human in the New Republic Era. While the series is a standalone project within the existing universe, having little connection to the other shows and movies in the franchise, Law explained that he would not be the artist (and Star Wars fanboy) he is today without the influence of the OG movies.

“The first three films had such a significant effect on not just me as individual movies or as a triptych of films, but just in the experience of going to the cinema,” Law shared.

He continued, “I remember going in the late ’70s as a kid with my family to see the first Star Wars, and it was sort of life-changing in many ways.”

Life-changing to say the least, especially for the actor who would go on to star in many silver-screen films of his own, including the Fantastic Beasts movies, Sherlock Holmes, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, and The Holiday — i.e. his best film by far. It’s been a long and illustrious career for the screen and stage player who first became a household name with 1999’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, a role that scored him an Academy Award nomination.

Given that in the two and a half decades since, Law has been an alien (Captain Marvel), a beloved hook-handed villain (Peter Pan & Wendy), the leader of the Catholic Church (The Young Pope), and the disembodied narrator (Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events), there aren’t a ton of experiences on a set he has yet to have the pleasure of encountering. Despite his veteran status in Hollywood, he told Decider that Skeleton Crew is a project he feels particularly proud of because it exposed him to the more practical side of sci-fi filmmaking.

“The masks and the puppets and the models are so beautiful to behold. They’re real works of art and they take months and months to design and then create,” Law elaborated. “That interaction was unique for me. Pretty new and and fun.”

He added, “I think the younger me would have just been bowled over to experience them.”

While the younger version of Law may have been baffled to be on a Star Wars set, present-day Law was tasked with leading one, especially since many of his co-stars have a curfew and homework. In the series, Law’s character encounters a group of children who are lost in the galaxy and searching for a way home, leading him to quickly become in-loco parentis. What follows is eight episodes of shenanigans as Nawood helps to guide the young travelers back to their mysterious home planet.

Outside of Law and the Star Wars umbrella to attract viewers to this ambitious and joyful tale, Skeleton Crew also boasts an impressive roster of creators and visionaries who stepped in to work behind the camera on the show. The series features episodes helmed by Everything Everywhere All At Once auteurs Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett director Bryce Dallas Howard, and Twisters director Lee Isaac Chung. Jon Watts — who previously piloted the three Spider-Man movies starring Tom Holland — also serves as co-creator with Christopher Ford, who he worked with on Spider-Man: Homecoming.

For Law, Skeleton Crew is a homecoming in its own right as he finally gets to sit at the table with his fellow Star Wars fans who have come together to create the series. And even though his character’s identity and arc have already made the rounds online, he told Decider that nothing is as it immediately seems in the show.

“I can tell you that Jord will keep you guessing right to the end,” Law teased.

Skeleton Crew premieres two episodes on Disney+ on Monday, December 2.

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