Any “Star Wars” scoundrel worth their salt needs an edge, whether it comes from shooting first in a seedy cantina showdown or mercilessly turning in wanted fugitives to be tortured by Jabba the Hutt. Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law) of “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” is no different, and he’s already made some big strides in the reputation department by sacking a cargo ship, escaping from a pirate brig on Port Borgo, and kicking off a potentially dangerous search for the lost planet of At Attin. All in a day’s work for a fair-weather space pirate and mysterious Force user.
Jod’s willingness to throw down against other rapscallions isn’t his only edgy trait, though. Through the early episodes of “Skeleton Crew,” he’s also shown a palpable distaste for droids, not unlike the one Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) displays in “The Mandalorian.” When the kids of “Skeleton Crew” refuse to leave Port Borgo without their robotic first mate SM-33 (Nick Frost), Jod is clearly exasperated, and he repeatedly drops lines that trusting a droid will let you down every time.
Since Din’s initial hatred of droids is later traced back to his childhood trauma from the Clone Wars, it would be natural to assume that Jod’s unease around the mechanical beings has a similar basis. However, it seems that the origin of Jod’s droid loathing was Jude Law himself, who added the detail as a sort of extra flavor for the character.
Jude Law added in Jod’s droid hate himself
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Jude Law discussed the first few episodes of “Skeleton Crew” and what fans can expect from the rest of the season. When asked specifically about Jod’s less-than-savory comments regarding droids, he said he made that character choice personally, suggesting that the script was amended slightly as a result.
“I kept sprinkling it in, and they all kept going, ‘What are you doing?'” Law explained. “I don’t know, I just had this idea that something happened in the past and he just does not trust them. And I just like that I was looking also for a little edge.” The actor emphasized that, of course, he loves droids and had a great time in all the scenes where he got to engage with the real physical props. “I just thought: Oh, this is interesting. Maybe he just has a slight disdain and a distrust,” Law said. “And I always love that little detail in those past ‘Star Wars’ — people have different relationships with droids.”
In “The Mandalorian,” Din’s distrust of droids is a central piece of his character. It reflects the violent world he’s been raised in and his solitary nature at the start of the show, which slowly unworks itself through his relationship with Grogu. It seems that Jod’s feelings toward the robotic beings of “Star Wars” are less concrete, based more in a character choice meant to add flavor than in some carefully crafted secret. That said, if the writers were willing to make script changes to give Jod his droid soapbox, there’s a good chance we could get a more vivid explanation down the line.
What could have happened to make Jod Na Nawood hate droids so much?
There are a lot of hidden aspects to Jude Law’s “Skeleton Crew” character, from his mysterious Force-sensitivity to his sordid history as a space pirate. No doubt we’ll get answers to at least some of these questions as the show continues. As for his opinion on droids, there are a number of possible explanations that are a bit more specific than what Law told Entertainment Weekly — that “maybe he’s had a bad moment and just doesn’t like them.”
The most likely reason is the same as Din Djarin’s. During the Clone Wars, countless planets and star systems were ravaged by the droid armies of the Separatists. Jod would have been a teenager or young adult during the war, so it’s totally feasible that he lost loved ones or had some terrifying encounter that tainted his perspective on droids. His Force-sensitivity adds an extra layer to the puzzle, however. If he never made it to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, than that means he was missed in the Jedi’s relatively exhaustive surveys of Force-inclined children. Could the reason for his gray-area Force allegiance also have something to do with his dislike of droids? Potentially.
For now, we’ll have to wait as “Skeleton Crew” unravels the mysteries of Jod Na Nawood. Hopefully, his arc brings at least some character growth in the droid department. I mean, trauma or no, let’s call a spade a spade. That’s space racism, buddy.
New episodes of “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” drop Tuesdays at 6 pm PST on Disney+.
