Starfighter’ at Star Wars Celebration

Shawn Levy‘s new Star Wars movie, Star Wars: Starfighter, exploded on the scene at this weekend’s Star Wars Celebration convention in Chiba, Japan. Levy and the movie’s star, Ryan Gosling, addressed the ecstatic crowd and discussed their own fandom for the venerable space opera series. Collider’s Maggie Lovitt was on the scene.

Levy, who busted the box office bank with last year’s Deadpool & Wolverine, talked about how much Star Wars meant to him as a fan, and how important it was to create a new story in the sandbox:

We’re one of them. We’re one of them. You know, there’s obviously a relationship between these stories and the audience, but we’ve spent our lives in the audience, and we know how meaningful it is. As Ryan said, it’s a big galaxy. It’s a big galaxy, and it feels like there’s an opportunity to do a movie that’s not a prequel, that’s not a sequel, and gives us the Star Wars DNA that we love, but with an adventure that’s all new.

Added Gosling, whose own ode to the movies, The Fall Guy, was released last year:

Being here and seeing all of you is more inspiration to do it, because there’s so much creativity and imagination in this room, and there’s so much love…it’s such a great reminder of why we’re making it, and how much movies can mean to us, and specifically how much these movies mean to us. And I think, you know, the Force is a mysterious thing, but I think as I’m here, the Force is the fans. I think all we can hope for is…may the fans be with us.

If Levy and Gosling are true to their word, this will be the first Star Wars film that isn’t a sequel or a prequel since 1977. Outside the prequel trilogy and the sequel trilogy, Rogue One and Solo were also essentially prequels, and the upcoming The Mandalorian and Grogu film is a sequel to the three seasons of The Mandalorian. Audiences will be able to see for themselves when Star Wars: Starfighter blasts on to movie screens May 27, 2027.

What Do We Know About ‘Star Wars: Starfighter’?

The film will take place five years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, which places it forty years after 1977’s Star Wars. Apart from that, very little has been revealed; however, from the title, it’s safe to say that the film will revolve around starfighter pilots and the outer space dogfighting action that has been a staple of the franchise since Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing braved marauding TIE Fighters to destroy the Death Star. Unlike the myriad other Star Wars films that have been announced since the sequel trilogy concluded in 2019, Starfighter is getting ready to jump to hyperspace: the film is now in pre-production.

Other Star Wars projects getting the spotlight at Celebration are the upcoming new seasons of Andor, Ahsoka, and Star Wars: Visions, as well as The Mandalorian and Grogu, which is set to hit theaters next summer. It is the second Celebration to be held in Japan, and the first since 2008.

Star Wars: Starfighter will be released on May 27, 2027. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.