Shawn Levy will try his hand at giving Star Wars a fresh start with his newly announced film, Starfighter.
Revealed at Star Wars Celebration 2025 in Japan by Lucasfilm’s President Kathleen Kennedy and Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni, we’ll see a brand-new take on the franchise with Levy’s Star Wars: Starfighter starring Ryan Gosling.
It’s been long rumored, and it was finally confirmed to the crowd at this year’s massive Star Wars convention. The film will enter production this fall, ahead of its release in May 2027.
Little is known about Starfighter at the time of writing. Still, the press release reveals it’s “a standalone adventure taking place approximately five years after the events of 2019’s Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker.” Levy’s first foray into the franchise is also described as an “entirely new adventure featuring all-new characters set in a period of time that has not been explored on screen yet.”
Shawn Levy is best known as a director and producer of both film and television series, including Deadpool & Wolverine, Free Guy, and Stranger Things. Fans know Gosling for his acting career, which has seen him star in films like The Notebook and La La Land; the latter earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
With Gosling joining the franchise, he’s diving into the world of IP-based filmmaking once again, following his turns in both Blade Runner: 2049 and Barbie. The actor has spent a lot of his career as either a charismatic love interest or a leading actor in prestige movies, so his rare appearances in sequels, spin-offs, or adaptations are always striking. Outside of Blade Runner 2049 as well, he’s not in that many hard genre pieces. We don’t usually see Gosling in sci-fi, so a turn in Star Wars could feel fresh for both the franchise and the leading man.
It will also be interesting to see the tone they strike with this. Given Gosling’s comedic chops, showcased in films like Crazy, Stupid, Love, or Levy’s directing of the hilarious Deadpool & Wolverine, we can expect something tinged with humor and featuring big set pieces.
We’ll see the cinematic return of Star Wars with next year’s The Mandalorian & Grogu, which debuted its first look at Star Wars Celebration 2025. Can the franchise return to its heyday, or is the Disney era too far gone? We’ll see very soon.
Star Wars: Starfighter will open exclusively in theaters on May 28, 2027.
