Surprise dropped at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim 2025, the upcoming 2027 standalone film Star Wars: Starfighter by Shawn Levy has had a steady drip of entertainment trade announced casting since, sparking more and more excitement for the film. Today, Lucasfilm officially announced casting, confirming several already intriguing names and adding some new ones, plus revealing production has started. Head below for the full first image and a round-up about the new cast!
Set around 5 years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, Starfighter is a standalone film starring Ryan Gosling with a script by Jonathan Tropper that we don’t know terribly much about, officially, though some of the casting seems to support rumors from trades regarding various roles and the story. For starters, Flynn Gray’s casting, who appears in the first production photo by Ed Miller where he sits alongside Gosling on what looks to be a landspeeder of some type, seemingly confirms a rumor associated with the initial reveal of Mia Goth’s involvement with the project, which said Gosling was, “…protect[ing] a young charge against evil pursuers.” Flynn certainly fits the bill of a young charge, though it’s unknown if he’s a potential Force-user or not, hence why he’d be chased. Today’s news confirmed Mia Goth’s casting, as well as Matt Smith’s, who is rumored to be a military, non-Force using villain alongside Goth’s villain. Goth has made her biggest splash as the center character in the X horror film series and I feel like she’ll make for a great villain, while Matt Smith, not only the latest Doctor from the Doctor Who franchise to make it into Star Wars, already plays some wickedly good villains in roles like House of the Dragon, so they should both be forces to be reckoned with for Gosling and Gray.
As for the rest of the new cast, only one role seems to have a rumor associated with it and it’s that Amy Adams (yes, holy shit, that Amy Adams) will play Gray’s character’s mother, though this isn’t officially confirmed. If it is, I hope she’s got a decent-sized role and gets to help with protecting her child, but most importantly that she doesn’t join the long-list of dead Star Wars mothers (Padmé, Shmi Skywalker, Lyra Erso, Miamir aka Rey’s mom, to name a few). The others announced include: Aaron Pierre, who will be Green Latern in the upcoming DC show Laterns; Simon Bird, best known for The Inbetweeners series and films; Jamael Westman, who played Alexander Hamilton in the West End’s performances of the play Hamilton; and Daniel Ings, who’s in the upcoming A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, stars in The Gentleman, and was in The Marvels.
The drought of Star Wars films looks to be clearing up, as The Mandalorian and Grogu hits theaters May 22, 2026, and Starfighter follows only one year later May 28, 2027. Starfighter won’t be alone in 2027 though, as A New Hope will be rereleased for its 50th Anniversary! Plenty of Star Wars to enjoy on the big screen soon!
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