We now know the 50th anniversary Star Wars movie as well as confirmed several casting rumors. Star Wars: Starfighter will star Ryan Gosling and is directed by Shawn Levy. The standalone movie arrives in theaters on May 28, 2027 and starts filming this fall.
Revealed at Star Wars Celebration 2025 in Japan, Gosling and Levy both came out on stage to join Dave Filoni and Kathleen Kennedy to announce their title. This is also the formal confirmation of Gosling in the film from Lucasfilm, despite it being a big open secret for months. We also got the logo reveal on YouTube.
The movie will be set about 5 years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker. I find this personally exciting because we know that the Rey Skywalker movie starring Daisy Ridley is set even later than that. Kathleen Kennedy did confirm in the same panel that the Rey movie from director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy as well as James Mangold, Taika Waititi, Simon Kinberg, and Dave Filoni's Avengers-style Mandoverse movie are all still in the works too (shoutout to Star Wars Explained for their reporting). Levy's movie could set the stage for the Rey Skywalker film because it's an unknown time period. Also, the the government destroyed in The Force Awakens, we don't even know who is in charge of the galaxy. Levy and Gosling's movie is going to be a lot of world building.
I am surprised to see Taika's movie is still in the works. Thought, it's also important to note that Patty Jenkin's not mentioned in the list of movies, despite her updating last year that she was apparently still working on Rogue Squadron. I'll believe it when I see it.
I think Star Wars: Starfighter could be quite the surprise as it's going to be the 50th anniversary movie. It'll be setting the stage for the franchise going forward while celebrating a major milestone.
Star Wars: Starfighter will arrive in theaters on May 28, 2027.