Before we knew anything about Skeleton Crew, we knew one thing: it was going to star Jude Law. His involvement was announced all the way back in 2022, and since then, rumors have swirled about his character, Jod Na Nawood. As more details of the show have come to light we’ve learned more things about him and how he ends up on a ship with four kids and a droid who sounds like Nick Frost.
Crucially, we learned that Jod is Force user, something we see in action in the series’ trailer. But every time his character is described, he’s referred to as a “Force user,” not a Jedi. At first, I thought this was just a way to keep things vague, but then I started theorizing. Looking for answers, I took my theory to Jude Law himself, and his answer may have revealed everything.
My theory starts with one simple question: why would a Jedi not be referred by that term? Skeleton Crew is set in the New Republic, an era that was ushered in by a Jedi, so there wouldn’t be a need to hide like in the Empire era. He could have had a crisis of faith and rejected the Jedi path, but that’s unlikely considering that would just be a repeat of Ahsoka Tano’s story from her own New Republic series. Maybe he’s not being referred to as a Jedi because he’s not a Jedi at all — he’s a Sith. Or, at least, a former Sith, now navigating the galaxy on his own.
At first, my only evidence was just vibes. I knew that Skeleton Crew was going to be a story focused on pirates, and the piratic “plunder and conquer” morality is very close in line with a Sith’s. Plus, in the wake of The Acolyte, it’s clear that Star Wars is trying to find some balance in how much attention is given to both factions.
But then everything changed with one image: a publicity still of Jod pointing at — and, if you ask me, translating — ur-Kittât, the runic language of the Sith. Sith runes were made illegal to translate during the Republic era, as we learned in The Rise of Skywalker, so the most likely way for someone to learn the language is through the Sith tradition, just like how Darth Vader learned the language from Darth Sidious.
Law has been very coy about Jod’s true identity. “Conflicted is certainly a word I'd use to describe Jod,” he told StarWars.com, “Ultimately, [Jod is] a survivor.”
But I needed answers — or at least a reaction — to my theory. When I asked Law point-blank if Jod was a Sith, I got an equally coy answer.
“It's really complicated. I can't answer it directly. I'm going to have to do a duck and dive and dodge and weave,” Law said. “He is many things to many people. I'll say that he's a survivor, and it's complicated.”
But then I brought up the photo. “Someone knows their stuff,” he said, pointing at me through the Zoom. It’s not quite the smoking blaster confirming my theory, but it at the very least confirms I’m not on a wild goose chase. There’s definitely more to Jod Na Nawood than meets the eye, but until the series reveals it, I’ll just have my speculation.
But that’s the joy of Star Wars. Regardless of whether or not he’s a Sith, the reveal that his relationship to the Force is more complicated than we realize is sure to deepen our knowledge of how the Force — and the factions who use it — work.
