Back in November 2022, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Shawn Levy, who hails from Quebec, inked a deal with Disney to make a Star Wars movie after completing his work on Stranger Things and what would become Deadpool & Wolverine. With the latter having released last year to huge success that made it the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time, and the former is set to release its final season sometime this year, coming into 2025 fans suspected that news of the highly anticipated production was to drop soon. Well, their suspicions were confirmed last Thursday at the Star Wars Celebration event, where the title was revealed as Star Wars: Starfighter, along with a release date of May 28th, 2027.
When news broke in January of this year that Ryan Gosling was in talks to play the leading role that he has since secured, I tentatively noted that a Shawn Levy Star Wars film was still not a sure thing. This came down to not only how much time had passed since he first signed on, but also because other major industry names, including Guillermo del Toro, Damon Lindeloff, and David Benioff and D.B Weiss, to name a few, failed to get their own Star Wars projects off the ground for one reason or another. As such, while the Star Wars franchise was thriving in the medium of television, it was floundering in the feature film department, as these failed projects, along with a lack of direction following the “Skywalker Saga”, led to what has now been a six-year drought, with the last film, The Rise of Skywalker, having released in 2019.
Essentially, Lucasfilm and Disney had to start making things happen, and that finally seems to be the case as filming wrapped for The Mandalorian & Grogu in December 2024, and is slated to be released May 2022, 2026. That will then be followed a year later by the subject of this article, Star Wars: Starfighter, which we now know the production houses are all in on.
While there is still little known about Star Wars: Starfighters, its official announcement came with some fascinating new details, nonetheless. The first is the title itself, which is particularly eye-catching for gamers as there is also a 2001 video game with the exact same name where you play as three different pilots battling the Empire in space battles, in addition to its sequel, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, which incorporates Force powers into some of the gameplay elements. However, it’s clear that neither these games nor their characters will be adapted into the film, as they take place during Episode I and II respectively, while Levy and Gosling’s Star Wars: Starfighter will be taking place five years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, which is the second major detail revealed on Thursday.
This is particularly interesting, as it will be the first entry in the Star Wars franchise to showcase the state of the galaxy far, far away after the fall of Emperor Palpatine and the First Order at the hands of Rey and Leia’s Resistance, as The Mandalorian & Grogu takes place between Episodes VI and VII. While the galaxy is very likely in a better place than it was under the rule of the First Order, there is surely a new big bad looking to fill the vacuum left by such a formidable evil…otherwise, there’s no real overarching story with stakes to tell. There’s also the matter of the New Republic and if it was able to regroup after being devastated, not to mention the potential lingering presence of the Sith, and of course, then there’s the question of the Jedi Order and what state it is in. So many possibilities.
Yet, so much is still unknown about Star Wars; Starfighters, even down to the cast, given that Gosling is the only confirmed actor in the movie, playing what we must assume is a pilot, and for all we know he could be a Force-wielder using his powers to aid his piloting as is seen in Jedi Starfighter. Speaking of pilots, there’s always the chance that Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron – the best pilot in the galaxy by the conclusion of The Rise of Skywalker – makes an appearance, which would make a lot of sense but remains to be seen. One thing we do know, though, is that they are in the process of casting, since it was recently reported that Oscar winner Mikey Madison was offered a role but turned it down for financial reasons.
Nonetheless, expect to hear more news on the project in the coming months.