This May's The Mandalorian and Grogu will bring Disney+'s biggest TV series to theaters, but Lucasfilm will move beyond the Skywalker Saga next year with filmmaker Shawn Levy's Star Wars: Starfighter.
Set 5 years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, we're heading into uncharted territory. It was recently revealed that Starfighter is going to feature lightsaber battles, suggesting there will still be enough Jedi (and Sith?) action for longtime Star Wars fans.
Screen Rant (via SFFGazette.com) recently spoke with Starfighter writer Jonathan Tropper, who confirmed that he and Levy set out to "tell a completely new story" with the movie. He added that they "weren't bound by any structures of the past movies," and reiterated that this adventure won't feature appearances from any "legacy characters."
"Obviously, lightsabers are a part of that universe and that part of that Galaxy," Tropper shared. "I'm so careful not to reveal anything, but essentially, I think it's known that we have no legacy characters. You're not going to see any of the characters you've seen in the other movies."
"So there are certain things that are still hallmarks of Star Wars that it's good to have in there. But more than that, I can't say."
Unless it's planned as a major surprise, this presumably means we won't see Daisy Ridley's Rey Skywalker. During a recent interview with USA Today, the actress was asked if we can expect news on the character's planned solo outing this year and replied, "I don't know about 2026. In the future sometime, yeah."
This comes after a recent report from Daniel Richtman, who said that if The Mandalorian and Grogu underperforms at the box office, Dave Filoni's planned Mandoverse crossover movie would likely be worked into a Disney+ limited series.
Of course, with Filoni now calling the shots as Lucasfilm President in place of Kathleen Kennedy, we're expecting a little more structure from the studio in terms of the big and small screen projects that are developed. If Ridley's comments prove anything, though, it's that things are currently in a state of flux.
Star Wars: Starfighter's cast is led by Free Guy star Ryan Gosling. Joining him are Flynn Gray (Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2), Matt Smith (House of the Dragon), Mia Goth (Infinity Pool), Aaron Pierre (Lanterns), Simon Bird (The Inbetweeners), Jamael Westman (Hedda), Daniel Ings (Lovesick), and Amy Adams (Man of Steel).
Directed by Levy, the film is produced by Levy and Kathleen Kennedy. Executive producers are Ryan Gosling, Dan Levine, Mary McLaglen, and Josh McLaglen. The script is by Jonathan Tropper.
Star Wars: Starfighter will be released theatrically on May 28, 2027.