Star Wars: Starfighter, from director Shawn Levy and starring Ryan Gosling, was announced several months ago and even featured prominently at this year’s Star Wars Celebration. And, according to a post on Star Wars’ official website today, Star Wars: Starfighter has begun production—meaning it is actually moving forward.
Levy shares the following statement along with the new update:
“I feel a profound sense of excitement and honor as we begin production on Star Wars: Starfighter. From the day Kathleen Kennedy called me up, inviting me to develop an original adventure in this incredible Star Wars galaxy, this experience has been a dream come true, creatively and personally. Star Wars shaped my sense of what story can do, how characters and cinematic moments can live with us forever. To join this storytelling galaxy with such brilliant collaborators onscreen and off, is the thrill of a lifetime.”
The announcement also includes further casting announcements and confirmations, with names such as the aforementioned Ryan Gosling, along with Mia Goth, Matt Smith, Flynn Gray, Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, and Amy Adams. All of this was posted alongside the first image released from the set, of Gosling in very Han Solo-esque garb.
Will Starfighter break the Star Wars movie curse?
Lucasfilm has had a notoriously rough go of it over the past several years. In the aftermath of the misfire that was Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the company and franchise seemed largely uncertain about what to do. In the midst of this power vacuum, the first season of Jon Favreau’s Disney+ series, The Mandalorian, became a surprise cultural sensation.
Thanks to this success and the fact that Disney was in search of more content to put onto the streaming service, Lucasfilm pivoted entirely to producing TV series rather than making films.
This became the unexpected status quo of the Star Wars franchise, despite having been one of the most iconic theatrical movie franchises of all time prior to 2019. While audiences were initially excited by the novelty of the Star Wars streaming shows, the appeal of getting new Star Wars within the comfort of your own home began to lose much of its luster as they pumped out increasingly more content onto the Disney+ platform.
It was clear that fans were hungry for more theatrically released Star Wars, and Lucasfilm was keenly aware of this. But what they apparently weren’t so keenly aware of was how to get any of the dozens of films they had announced were in development to actually start production.
Things seemed to finally be looking up at Star Wars Celebration 2023, when it was announced that three new films were in development and nearing production: an origins of the Jedi film from James Mangold, a Rey-centric movie from Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, and a theatrical crossover of all the Disney+ shows from Dave Filoni.
By 2025, however, none of these films have actually begun production. In fact, the only actual Star Wars movie in production—until today—had been The Mandalorian and Grogu.
However, Star Wars: Starfighter has broken the Star Wars movie curse and seems poised to get things moving forward with some momentum for the first time in a long time.