Canadian actor Ryan Gosling at CinemaCon 2025 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on April 2
LOS ANGELES – Oscar-nominated Canadian actor Ryan Gosling will star in a new Star Wars film that will reach movie theaters in May 2027, Walt Disney’s Lucasfilm announced on Thursday, April 17.
“Star Wars: Starfighter” will take place five years after the events of 2019’s “The Rise Of Skywalker,” a Lucasfilm statement said.
The movie is “an entirely new adventure featuring all-new characters set in a period of time that has not been explored on screen yet,” the statement added.
It will join the science-fiction franchise created by American filmmaker George Lucas in 1977, which already includes three sets of trilogies, several standalone movies and multiple TV spin-offs. The Star Wars films have brought in more than US$5.1 billion (S$6.7 billion) at global box offices.
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Another film set in the Star Wars universe, “The Mandalorian & Grogu,” is scheduled to open in theaters in 2026.
Canadian filmmaker Shawn Levy will direct “Starfighter” and production will start in the second half of 2025. Levy directed Marvel’s 2024 smash hit Deadpool & Wolverine and episodes of Netflix’s popular sci-fi series “Stranger Things” (2016 to present).
Gosling, 44, has been nominated for three Oscars, most recently for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Ken in Barbie (2023).
While he has signed on to venture into a galaxy far, far away, newly minted Oscar winner for Best Actress and Anora’s (2024) breakout star Mikey Madison will not.
According to entertainment trade magazine Variety, the 26-year-old American ingenue was offered a part in “Starfighter,” but passed on the role. REUTERS