- New Star Wars movie will be a standalone story
- 2027 release date has been set by Disney
- Ryan Gosling’s bed sheets made an appearance during announcement
Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has revealed that Ryan Gosling will play the lead role in a new Star Wars movie.
The announcement was made during the Star Wars Celebration event in Tokyo on Friday.
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Titled Star Wars: Starfighter, the standalone story will be directed by Shawn Levy (Deadpool & Wolverine) and will introduce a cast of new characters.
As reported by Variety, the screenplay has been written by Jonathan Tropper, the creator of the Apple TV+ series Your Friends & Neighbors.
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The last Star Wars film was 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, starring Daisy Ridley. While the new film departs from that trilogy, it’s set roughly five years after the events of Episode IX, promising a fresh chapter in the saga.
Fans will have to wait a little longer for the film’s release, which Disney has scheduled for 28 May 2027 – just over a year after the next Star Wars theatrical feature, The Mandalorian & Grogu.
Production is set to begin this fall and no other casting details have been announced yet.
Star Wars: Starfighter comes to theaters on May 28, 2027. #StarWarsCelebration pic.twitter.com/dsbVb3VdBY
— Star Wars (@starwars) April 18, 2025
“May the fans be with us”
Gosling and Levy appeared at the Star Wars event via livestream.
As the audience erupted at the end of the presentation, Gosling said, “Being here and seeing all of you [makes it] more inspiring to do it. There’s so much creativity and imagination in this room, and there’s so much love. It’s such a great reminder of how much movies can mean to us – specifically, how much these movies mean to us.”
The Canadian actor also had some special words for the fans : “The Force is a mysterious thing, but as I’m here, the Force is the fans. All we can hope for is, ‘May the fans be with us.’”
Gosling’s Star Wars bed sheets
Gosling’s childhood Star Wars bed sheets even made an appearance during the event. A photo, sent in by his mum, flashed on screen showing his childhood bedroom – complete with Star Wars bedding.
“She still has them, obviously,” Gosling joked. “Naturally, she thought that it might be something the fans would appreciate, but I suspect she just wants to justify years of hoarding.”
Ryan Goslin's childhood bed with his Star Wars Sheets. I also had a pair of those sheets. pic.twitter.com/cQkqkvyOT3
— Charlie Schneider (@AwesomEmergency) April 18, 2025
Looking at the photo, he added, “As you can see, I guess I was probably dreaming about Star Wars before I even saw the film.”
“And it’s probably framed my idea of what a movie even was,” he said.
Gosling’s most recent film was 2024’s action-romcom The Fall Guy. He was also nominated for an Oscar for his role as Ken in Barbie (2023), and is best known for the musical La La Land (2016) and the stylish action-drama Drive (2011).
