‘Skeleton Crew’ is already proving more expensive to make than ‘The Mandalorian’

The latest announced Star Wars series on Disney+, Skeleton Crew, will have a larger budget than Obi-Wan Kenobi as well as either of the first two seasons of The Mandalorian.

The information was revealed today when California’s film office named seven shows that will be receiving tax relief credits, including Netflix’s The Residence, among others. Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: Skeleton Crew has the highest budget of any of the seven shows.

Specifically, Skeleton Crew is projected as having $136 million in expenditures. For comparison, Obi-Wan Kenobi cost about $90-100 million, equivalent to the first season of The Mandalorian (with the second season costing an estimated $120 million). Thus far, it’s believed that the third season of The Mandalorian will likely be the most expensive live action Star Wars show yet, with a budget of about $25 million per episode.

Skeleton Crew is set to premiere some time in 2023, by which time we will have already seen Andor (a budget of about $15 million per episode) and The Mandalorian season 3, and very likely Ahsoka.

One can’t ignore the irony that a show called Skeleton Crew is so expensive (and I doubt they’ll have a skeleton crew working on it). The show will receive $20.9 million dollars in tax credits from the state of California, something previous Star Wars shows did not receive, thanks in part to the available state tax credit program getting a very recent boost of $180 million dollars in July 2021 via a bill signed by Governor Gavin Newsom.

Skeleton Crew will star Jude Law and will be a Lost in Space-type of show set in the Star Wars universe. It takes place in the years between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace. Though it follows a group of kids who are lost in the galaxy, Lucasfilm has stated that it’s not a kid’s show.

Production has already begun in Manhattan Beach Studios, and will film at other locations throughout California.

Disney Plus is set for a big 2023 in terms of live action Star Wars shows. The Mandalorian season 3 will premiere in February, Ahsoka is expected to premier in the spring, and Skeleton Crew hopefully no later then the summer, with two shows very likely premiering later that fall, including The Acolyte and Star Wars: Lando.