From Barbie to Blasters: What to Know About Ryan Gosling’s Standalone “Star Wars” Film
Ryan Gosling is going from the world of Barbie and Ken to Leia and Kenobi.
With the Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo delivering a galaxy’s worth of news, including a new series from Lost co-creator Carlton Cuse and his son, Nick, a veteran of Watchmen and Station Eleven, it would require an interdiction beam (look it up, Star Wars nubes) to pull all the information together. Yet arguably the biggest piece of news was that Ryan Gosling’s standalone Star Wars film has been confirmed. Gosling is teaming up with Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy for Star Wars: Starfighter, which now has a May 28, 2027 release date. Gosling joining the galaxy far, far away is about as big a disturbance in the Force as you can get.
Gosling’s surprise appearance in Tokyo, alongside Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy and Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni, confirmed the reality of Starfighter, which had been mostly well-grounded speculation for months. There have been a slew of big names associated with the Star Wars galaxy, with filmmakers including James Mangold working on Star Wars features, yet none were as big as Gosling. Now, Gosling assured fans that the film is very, very real.
“There are many rumors, some true, some not. This is not a prequel. This is not a sequel. It’s a new adventure,” Gosling said. “It was a great process. This is no longer a Star Wars movie in development. This is a Star Wars movie we’re making this fall!”
“This script is so good,” Gosling continued. “It’s filled with so much heart and adventure, and there just really is not a more perfect filmmaker for this particular story than Shawn.”
The script comes from Jonathan Tropper (The Adam Project, This Is Where I Leave You), and although no one’s saying much about the plot details, Shawn Levy revealed in Tokyo that the film is set after the Battle of Exegol, which happened in J.J. Abrams’ 2019 trilogy-capping The Rise of Skywalker. Abrams’ film was the final feature in the Skywalker Saga chronologically, although a new Star Wars film starring Daisy Ridley is in the works.
“Being here and seeing all of you [makes it] more inspiring to do it,” Gosling said during the Star Wars Celebration. “There’s so much creativity and imagination in this room, and there’s so much love. It’s such a great reminder of how much movies can mean to us, specifically how much these movies mean to us. The force is a mysterious thing, but, as I’m here, the force is the fans. All we can hope for is, ‘May the fans be with us.’”
Star Wars: Starfighter comes to theaters on May 28, 2027. #StarWarsCelebration pic.twitter.com/dsbVb3VdBY
— Star Wars (@starwars) April 18, 2025
Star Wars: Starfighter joins a fleet of new features in the works, yet since The Rise of Skywalker bowed in 2019, no new features have bowed. Instead, the galaxy has expanded on Disney+, where live-action series, beginning with The Mandalorian in 2019 and growing in leaps and bounds since, has become the most fertile soil for new Star Wars projects to grow. There has been a recent Star Wars feature that is already in the can, however—Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian & Grogu completed principal photography and is due in theaters on May 22, 2026.
For more on all things Star Wars, check out these stories:
Mysterious “Star Wars” Series in The Works From “Lost” Showrunner Carlton Cuse
“Star Wars” Sensation: Ryan Gosling in Talks to Join Director Shawn Levy in a Galaxy Far, Far Away
James Mangold Offers More Insight Into his “Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi” Movie
Featured image: TOKYO, JAPAN – APRIL 18: Ryan Gosling and Shawn Levy pose for a photo backstage during Star Wars Celebration Japan Day 1 on April 18, 2025 in Chiba, Japan. (Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images for Disney)
