How Many Years After Return of the Jedi Is Skeleton Crew Set on the Star Wars Timeline?

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Episode 3, “Very Interesting, as an Astrogation Problem.”

While Star Wars: Skeleton Crew‘s opening crawl positions the Disney+ show firmly post-Return of the Jedi, it’s a tad vague how much later we’re talking. Which begs the question: how many years after Return of the Jedi is Skeleton Crew set on the Star Wars timeline?

How Many Years Apart Are Skeleton Crew and Return of the Jedi?

Calculating the exact gap between Return of the Jedi and Skeleton Crew is tricky. As noted above, Skeleton Crew doesn’t supply an in-universe date for its narrative. The series’ co-creators Jon Watts and Christopher Ford – or anyone else involved with Skeleton Crew, for that matter – haven’t let this intel slip during promotional interviews, either.

That said, Lucasfilm has confirmed that Skeleton Crew‘s story unfolds in the same window as The Mandalorian and its various spinoffs. Given The Mandalorian Season 1 canonically kicks off in 9 ABY (that is, nine years after Star Wars: A New Hope‘s Battle of Yavin), presumably Skeleton Crew takes place then, too.

From here, figuring out the amount of time that elapses between Skeleton Crew and Return of the Jedi gets much easier. According to the official Star Wars timeline, Return of the Jedi is set in 4 ABY. Subtract 4 ABY from 9 ABY and you’re left with a five-year period. And there you have it: Return of the Jedi and Skeleton Crew are half a decade apart.

Related: Who Does Alfred Molina Play in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew?

Why Skeleton Crew Has to Take Place In the New Republic Era

Skeleton Crew‘s 9 ABY setting makes an already busy year in Star Wars history even busier. Aside from Skeleton Crew, the five-year anniversary of the Death Star II’s destruction also overlaps with The Mandalorian Seasons 1-3, Ahsoka Season 1, and The Book of Boba Fett. Indeed, you’d think Watts and Ford would’ve been tempted to avoid this chronological bottleneck. However, in a recent interview, Ford insisted that Skeleton Crew wouldn’t work in any other Star Wars era.

Related: Skeleton Crew: Who Is Alia Shawkat’s Kh’ymm?

“We were looking for a part in the whole Star Wars timeline when even kids could go get lost in the galaxy,” he told Screen Rant. “If you’re in the High Republic time, you’re going to get scooped up by some hero Jedi in about five minutes flat. Basically, we were looking for that time period because it was a little more chaotic. The New Republic is there, but they’re not necessarily all-powerful yet, so there’s room for pirates and danger.”

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is currently streaming on Disney+, with new episodes dropping Tuesdays.