Star Wars: Starfighter gets a new update from director Shawn Levy as anticipation builds for the big-screen return of the hit Disney franchise. Starring Ryan Gosling and featuring a script by Jonathan Tropper, the upcoming Star Wars movie was announced in April 2025, with confirmation then arriving in late August that production had gotten underway in the U.K.
In an interview with ScreenRant‘s Ash Crossan for Stranger Things season 5 part 1, Levy now reveals that Starfighter is just past the halfway point in filming. After taking a break to celebrate the end of the hit Netflix show, the director confirms that work resumed on the Star Wars project yesterday, November 10. Check out Levy’s full comment below:
My experience is that I genuinely feel like my 10-year-old self is on set with me every day. It is astonishing, and it’s complicated and thrilling every day. Ryan Gosling, we all know how brilliant he is, but he’s an incredible creative partner. And to fill out the cast with other amazing actors like Mia Goth, Matt Smith, and Amy Adams [and to have] this revelation of a young actor in Flynn Gray, it is more creatively satisfying than I dreamed it would be.
The shoot’s going well, and as you know, we’re a little over halfway done. I’ll be back on that set Monday morning. It was a quick trip here, but you know what, 10 years of Stranger Things! I couldn’t miss this farewell moment. It’s meant so much to me.
Given Levy’s latest comment, production will seemingly wrap late this year or in early 2026. The production update comes after Levy previously released a first-look image from the movie on Instagram. Though no official logline has been released just yet, the image, included below, shows Gosling and costar Flynn Gray wearing weathered clothing while aboard a watercraft on the ocean.
Thus far, no images have been released showing any other characters from the upcoming Star Wars movie, but Matt Smith is expected to be playing the villain. It’s unclear who Mia Goth, Amy Adams, Daniel Ings, Aaron Pierre, and Simon Bird will be playing, but Lucasfilm previously confirmed that Starfighter is an “entirely original story set in a period of time never before explored in Star Wars.”
Before Starfighter arrives in 2027, audiences will get to return to a galaxy far, far away next year with the release of The Mandalorian and Grogu, which arrives on May 22. This upcoming film, which stars Pedro Pascal, Sigourney Weaver, and Jeremy Allen White, and hails from director Jon Favreau, will mark the franchise’s first big-screen outing since 2019’s Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker.
Other in-development Star Wars projects include New Jedi Order starring Rey actor Daisy Ridley, and director James Mangold’s Dawn of the Jedi. Neither of these two movies have gotten promising updates recently, however, so it’s unclear what their status is.
For Levy, Starfighter will mark his first big-screen outing since the release of Deadpool & Wolverine in 2024. For Gosling, the movie serves as a follow-up to The Fall Guy (2024) and Barbie (2023). Many questions remain about Star Wars: Starfighter, but with filming now past the halfway point, it’s possible more promotional images will be released over the coming weeks.
- Release Date
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May 28, 2027
- Director
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Shawn Levy