Star Wars: Starfighter: Everything We Know

The Short Version

• Release: 28 May 2027 (US), with an IMAX release expected.
• Director: Shawn Levy (Deadpool & Wolverine, Stranger Things).
• Writer: Jonathan Tropper, a longtime Levy collaborator.
• Star: Ryan Gosling as Kade Auberon.
• Set: about five years after The Rise of Skywalker.
• Status: filming wrapped in December 2025. It's now in post-production.

The Story So Far

No full plot has been revealed, but the casting reports give the outline:

• Gosling's Kade Auberon travels with his nephew, played by newcomer Flynn Gray.
• They're pursued by two villains: Mia Goth and Matt Smith both play antagonists.
• Amy Adams plays the mother of Gray's character.

Kathleen Kennedy has described it as a standalone film: mostly new characters, separate from the Skywalker Saga, and not meant to launch sequels. Levy put it bluntly: "not a sequel, it's not a prequel, it's not legacy characters", and set in a period of the galaxy no film has explored. Tropper called it a "simpler movie" with "as few barriers of entry as possible for new fans".

Levy's biggest Star Wars influence for this one? Return of the Jedi, for its "combination of theme, levity, adventure, heart, spectacle".

The Cast

In the order Lucasfilm announced them:

| Actor | Role | |---|---| | Ryan Gosling | Kade Auberon | | Flynn Gray | Kade's nephew | | Matt Smith | An antagonist | | Mia Goth | An antagonist | | Aaron Pierre | Not revealed | | Simon Bird | Not revealed | | Jamael Westman | Not revealed | | Daniel Ings | Not revealed | | Amy Adams | Mother of Gray's character |

Two nice footnotes:

• Matt Smith was cast in The Rise of Skywalker but never appeared in it. Levy said joining Starfighter "feels like it's destiny fulfilled".
• Mikey Madison was briefly in talks for the villain role that went to Goth, but turned it down over pay.

Behind the Camera

• Cinematography: Claudio Miranda.
• Editing: Adam Gerstel (season 2 of The Mandalorian).
• Music: Thomas Newman. Levy wants a "big-hearted", classically inspired score with recurring themes like John Williams's, but "not a remix" of them.
• Costumes: Suttirat Anne Larlarb, back from Obi-Wan Kenobi.
• Producers: Shawn Levy and Kathleen Kennedy, for Lucasfilm and Levy's 21 Laps Entertainment.

How It Got Made

• Mid-2010s: Levy flies to London just to tell Kennedy he wants to make a Star Wars film. Stranger Things gets in the way.
• November 2022: Levy enters talks to direct. The 2023 writers' strike slows things down.
• July 2024: Tropper is hired to write.
• January 2025: Gosling enters talks, which moves the film ahead of Levy's other plans.
• April 2025: Star Wars Celebration Japan reveals the title, Gosling and the date.
• 28 August 2025: Filming starts in the UK, then moves to Sardinia, including scenes at sea.
• December 2025: Filming wraps, after Levy reshot part of the third act where "things didn't align".

Set-visit trivia: Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise both dropped by, and Cruise operated a camera for a lightsaber duel in a boggy marsh. So yes, there are lightsabers.

What It Cost

In October 2026 Disney disclosed a gross cost of $226.5 million to the end of principal photography. That falls to $175 million net after $51.5 million in UK tax credits. Post-production and marketing come on top of that, so it isn't the final budget.

Trailers and Footage

There's no public trailer yet. Footage has been shown only to industry and fan crowds: at CineEurope in June 2026, and at Disney's D23 in August, where Levy and Gosling showed more. A first public trailer is the next big thing to watch for.

Still Unknown

• The plot beyond the uncle, nephew and villains outline.
• Who Pierre, Bird, Westman and Ings play, and the villains' names.
• Whether Daisy Ridley's Rey appears. Early reports said she would, but she isn't in the announced cast.
• Runtime and rating.

FAQ

When does Star Wars: Starfighter come out?

28 May 2027 in the US.

Is it a sequel to The Rise of Skywalker?

No. It's set about five years later, but it's a standalone story with new characters.

Who does Ryan Gosling play?

Kade Auberon.

Is it related to the 2001 Starfighter video game?

No. They just share a name.

The Closing Line

A Ryan Gosling space road trip with a kid, two villains on his tail and Tom Cruise behind the camera for a swamp duel. Somebody at Lucasfilm finally read the room.

Source: Wikipedia: Star Wars: Starfighter (CC BY-SA). Follow the live countdown.