‘Skeleton Crew’ premiered on Disney+ on December 2, 2024, but it hasn’t had the impact fans hoped for. The show was praised by critics, and it earned one of the highest Rotten Tomatoes scores for a Star Wars series, but its viewership numbers tell a different story.
‘Skeleton Crew’ currently has a 91% critic score and an 80% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Some compared its tone to classic films like ‘The Goonies’ and ‘E.T.,’ and many felt it brought a sense of wonder that Star Wars has been missing. It even scored higher than popular shows like ‘Ahsoka’ and ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi.’
However, the series struggled to find an audience when it comes to viewership. According to Nielsen’s streaming data, the first two episodes of ‘Skeleton Crew’ were watched for a combined 382 million minutes in its first week. That’s less than 5 million people tuning in — based on the total runtime.
To make matters worse, the show failed to enter Disney+’s Top 10 Originals an became the first Star Wars series to miss the list during its premiere week. For comparison, ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 2 pulled in over 1 billion minutes in its first week. Even ‘The Acolyte,’ which fans heavily criticized, had higher premiere numbers with 488 million minutes.
Things didn’t improve in ‘Skeleton Crew’s second week. The show’s viewership continued to drop with less than 288 million minutes watched. This means even fewer people tuned in.
A bigger issue could be the damage done by past Star Wars projects. Shows like ‘The Book of Boba Fett‘ and ‘The Acolyte’ left many fans disappointed, and it seems some people gave up on watching new Star Wars content altogether. On Reddit, one fan mentioned that Disney turned Star Wars into ‘something mundane instead of magical.’ Others shared similar feelings, blaming Disney for losing the spark that made the franchise special.
Critics believe ‘Skeleton Crew’ is one of the better Star Wars series in years, but this bias may have caused some viewers to skip the show. The show’s positive buzz could help it pick up steam over time, much like ‘Andor,’ which started slow but eventually found its audience. Disney’s decision to greenlight a second season will depend on if those numbers improve.
‘Skeleton Crew’ Episode 8 airs today, January 14, on Disney+.
