Kathleen Kennedy has addressedRyan Gosling’scasting in Shawn Levy’s upcomingStar Warsmovie, as well as just how long the film has (surprisingly) been in development.Star Wars Celebration 2025has officially begun in Japan, andScreenRantis in attendance to get all the exciting details and news coming from the galaxy far, far away. This includes exclusive interviews with none other than Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy.
FollowingStar Wars Celebration’s first panel coveringThe Mandalorian & GroguandStar Wars: Starfighter,ScreenRantgot the chance to sit with Kathleen Kennedy, who revealed some key insights about Ryan Gosling’s newStar Warscasting and just how longStarfighterhas been in development:
“Shawn started talking about Ryan right from the beginning. When he was developing this, he had Ryan in mind.
I’ve known Shawn a long time and I think that he is one of the perfect directors for Star Wars. He has that wonderful sense of humor, fun, loves Star Wars. He’s been dying to do this forever.
In fact, I talked to him as he mentioned in 2022, but I talked to him even before that because he had gotten into Stranger Things and suddenly with that success, it kind of took him off the market for a while. So he’s been thinking about this story for quite some time and wanting to do something in the Star Wars universe, I think his whole life.”
According to Kennedy, who confirmed the idea for this film has been in the works since 2022 and even earlier, it’s very exciting thatShawn Levy’sStar Wars: Starfighteris finally becoming a reality with a release date in 2027.
Ryan Gosling Is The Biggest Actor Casting In Star Wars History
A Ton Of Starpower
Typically, prominent leading actors who get cast inStar Warsmovies don’t come into the galaxy far, far away with a lot of preexisting star power. Of course, there are a handful of notable exceptions, like Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon Jinn or Samuel L. Jackson’s Mace Windu.Still, it’s a pretty rare thing to have a main character in a brand-newStar Warsmovie be one of the most popular Hollywood actors of all time.
This is what makes Ryan Gosling’s casting inStar Wars: Starfighterso surprising and exciting. Likewise, it’s very cool to hear that Shawn Levy had been envisioning Gosling from the very beginning of the movie’s development. While it wasn’t revealedwho Gosling will specifically be playing inStarfighter, one can imagine, based purely on the movie’s title alone, that Gosling will be playing some sort of pilot in the post-sequel trilogy era of theStar Warstimeline.
Our Take On Shawn Levy’s Upcoming Star Wars Movie
Are We Finally Going To Get Our X-Wing Movie?
The reveal of theStarfightertitle should be incredibly exciting forStar Warsfans.After all, recent years have seen the cancellation of delays/cancellations of bothRogue SquadronandRangers of the New Republic, two projects which would have been focused on heroic pilots and their starfighters in the galaxy far, far away. Now, it looks as though Levy and Gosling are finally going to make that dream a reality in 2027.
