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Hiro Komae/Associated Press
Ryan Gosling will lead a new Star Wars film, Lucasfilm announced at the Star Wars Celebration event in Japan.
Titled “Star Wars: Starfighter,” the standalone project directed by “Deadpool & Wolverine” filmmaker Shawn Levy is scheduled for release on May 7, 2027.
Set five years after the events of 2019’s “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” the film will not follow the Skywalker saga.
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“The film… is an entirely new adventure featuring all-new characters set in a period of time that has not been explored on screen,” read a statement from Lucasfilm, the San Francisco-based company that owns the “Star Wars” franchise.
Film director Shawn Levy, left, and actor Ryan Gosling have a light moment onstage with director Dave Filoni and film producer Kathleen Kennedy during a fan convention called the Star Wars Celebration in Chiba, Japan, on Friday, April 18.
Hiro Komae/Associated Press
“The script is just so good, the story, it has so much adventure, so much heart and original character,” Gosling said during a panel discussion at the Makuhari Messe convention center Friday, April 18. “It’s an opportunity to shine the light into a side of the universe that we may not have seen.”
Levy described the project as “not a prequel, not a sequel,” but “a new adventure,” and emphasized the responsibility that comes with directing a Star Wars film.
“You take on ‘Star Wars,’ you take on something this beloved, it’s intimidating, you’re scared, you’re nervous, you want to get it right,” he said. “But we have a feeling that with this story, with this collaboration, we can get it right.”
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Gosling, known for roles in “La La Land” and “Barbie,” also shared a photo of his childhood Star Wars bedsheets.
“I guess I was dreaming about ‘Star Wars’ even before I saw the film,” he said. “It’s always been there, it’s sort of in the DNA of the culture. Myself, I think it framed my idea of what a movie even was.”
Production on “Starfighter” is expected to begin later this year. It will follow “The Mandalorian & Grogu,” the next Star Wars theatrical release, slated for May 2026.
