Star Wars: Starfighter

• 1. Director And Development History

  ›

  Shawn Levy flew to London in the mid-2010s specifically to meet with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. He expressed his love for the Star Wars franchise and his wish to make a Star Wars film during that meeting. The pair began discussing a potential project, but this was put on hold when Levy became busy with the television series Stranger Things (2016, 2025). Levy was contacted by Kennedy in 2022 and entered talks to develop and direct a new Star Wars film that November. He publicly confirmed the deal a month later. Many filmmakers had been announced as developing Star Wars films that did not come to fruition in recent years. Levy acknowledged this history but remained confident his film would succeed. He planned to begin writing after he finished directing the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) for Marvel Studios. Development was just beginning when the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike began in May 2023. That strike halted further progress until October 2023. After the strike ended, Levy said development had begun again. Dave Filoni revealed in the following month that he was now chief creative officer at Lucasfilm. Filoni served as executive producer on various Star Wars television series before taking this role. He would be directly involved in the planning of future films and series.

  123

• 2. Casting Announcements And Choices

  ›

  At Star Wars Celebration Japan in April 2025, the film received its title Star Wars: Starfighter. This name matches an unrelated 2001 video game. The event also gave a release date of the 28th of May 2027. Gosling was confirmed to be starring during this announcement. Casting was underway for a teenage actor to portray the nephew of Gosling's character. Mikey Madison was in brief negotiations for the female antagonist role. She declined an offer by mid-April due to a salary dispute. Mia Goth was cast in that role in June. Matt Smith joined Starfighter as another antagonist in August. Smith had been cast in an undisclosed role for The Rise of Skywalker but ultimately did not appear in that film. Levy later acknowledged reports of Smith's initial casting and said it felt like destiny fulfilled for the actor to join the franchise. With the start of filming at the end of August, Lucasfilm announced the casting of newcomer Flynn Gray alongside Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman, Daniel Ings, and Amy Adams. Gray was cast as the nephew of Gosling's character. Adams was cast as the mother of Gray's character.

  910141718

• 3. Filming Locations And Production Challenges

  ›

  Principal photography began on the 28th of August 2025, in the United Kingdom. Claudio Miranda served as the cinematographer for the production. By mid-September, filming was taking place in Sardinia, Italy. Levy released an image showing filming taking place in the Mediterranean Sea. In early November, Levy took a short break from filming to promote the fifth season of Stranger Things (2025). Filming was more than halfway complete by then. At the end of the month, Levy said there was part of the film's third act where things did not align. His original plans were forced to change during this period. He was filming the new version of this scene at the time. Smith filmed his scenes in December. Levy announced that filming had wrapped on December 18. Kennedy said it was risky for a film to rely on an inexperienced child actor. She added they got lucky with Gray. The film's structure meant he was one-on-one with a different major actor every few weeks. Both Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise visited the set during filming. Cruise served as a camera operator for a lightsaber duel set in a boggy marsh.

  25263132

• 4. Musical Score And Creative Vision

  ›

  Levy revealed in November 2025 that Thomas Newman was composing the score. The director wanted the music to be big-hearted and classically inspired. He requested multiple musical themes to tell the story. This approach mirrors John Williams's music for the main Star Wars films. Newman agreed to join after reading the script and hearing Levy's vision. The composer is known for some of Levy's favorite film scores. The goal was to create something that felt like Star Wars without being a remix of Williams's music. Suttirat Anne Larlarb served as the costume designer for the production. She previously worked on the Star Wars television series Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022). Levy described the pressure of making this film even after working on big projects like Deadpool & Wolverine and Stranger Things. Nothing carries as religious an allegiance as Star Wars for the franchise's fans. He elaborated that the film was not a sequel, prequel, or legacy character piece. It was also not set in a period of time ever explored before. They were inventing everything in the movie including design choices, character choices, planet choices, and costume choices. The previous Star Wars film that most inspired Starfighter was Return of the Jedi (1983).

  342223

• 5. Release Schedule And Distribution Plans

  ›

  Star Wars: Starfighter is scheduled to be released in the United States on the 28th of May 2027. The film is expected to be released in IMAX format. This release window follows the conclusion of principal photography which wrapped in December 2025. Production involved multiple locations across the United Kingdom and Italy. The project has been developed under the oversight of Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. Disney parent company Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures will distribute the film. The story takes place five years after the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019). It features mostly new characters while allowing some sequel trilogy characters to return. The film is intended to be standalone and not launch any sequels.

  35