Lucasfilm is reportedly piloting Star Wars back toward its Harrison Ford roots for a 2027 release. The franchise just returned to theaters for the first time since 2019 with The Mandalorian and Grogu, and the reaction was mixed at best, with critics and the box office both landing with a thud. That underwhelming showing comes during a turning point for Disney's Lucasfilm as it figures out where to take the franchise next. Now, a new comment claims the studio's next tentpole film, coming out next year, is set to harken back to the Original Trilogy era.
IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond appeared on Matt Belloni's The Town podcast and revealed he visited the set of Star Wars: Starfighter. The upcoming Star Wars movie was filmed from August 28, 2025, to December 18, 2025.
Gelfond's excitement was recently echoed by Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige's own praise for the film at San Diego Comic-Con, and it came with a detail hinting at what the movie might actually feel like.
Since Gelfond runs IMAX, he confirmed that Starfighter will be released in that format and also shared a bit of his thoughts on the movie. Unprovoked, he noted that Starfighter will be "a throwback to the Harrison Ford kind of Star Wars:"
"We have the next Star Wars coming, and I've been on set the Ryan Gosling one, and that's a throwback to the Harrison Ford kind of Star Wars..."
Belloni cut him off before he could finish the thought, so it's not clear if Gelfond meant the visual style, the tone, or something else about Ford's time in Star Wars entirely.
He also added praise for the movie, after a bit of pushback considering the performance of The Mandalorian and Grogu:
"Well, Matt, I'm on a limb on this one. I'll tell you, take that to the bank...I think it's going to be good."
It is important to note that Gelfond isn't an unbiased observer. If Starfighter is a success in IMAX, it helps his wallet.
Still, coming from someone who has actually walked the set and knows more than the average fan, the word "throwback" carries some weight. It's also a strange word choice on paper. Starfighter is set after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, making it the furthest into the future the Star Wars timeline has ever gone on screen.
That makes a literal throwback not possible, which points more toward Gelfond describing a feeling or spirit rather than a time period.
This train of thinking goes along with Starfighter screenwriter Jonathan Tropper, who said in July he and director Shawn Levy built the Ryan Gosling-led film to recreate "the feeling in theaters that we had as kids seeing Star Wars back in 1977," with "no barriers to entry" for viewers who've never seen another Star Wars movie.
Naming Harrison Ford specifically also raises the question of whether Gosling's character shares some qualities with Han Solo, especially given that Gosling is one of the biggest movie stars ever cast in a new Star Wars film.
That kind of comparison is an interesting one, especially for fans still sour on 2018's Solo: A Star Wars Story, which starred Alden Ehrenreich as a younger Han Solo. Many felt that the movie missed the magic and charm of the Original Trilogy, with a noticeable drop-off in performance from Ford to Ehrenreich.
If Starfighter can recapture that energy, even just in spirit, it could go a long way toward winning back that goodwill. Gelfond's new comments are helping paint a picture for Starfighter before Lucasfilm has released a first trailer.
The film stars Gosling, Flynn Gray, Matt Smith, Mia Goth, and Aaron Pierre, but on an official level, not much has been revealed about what the movie is about.
What is Star Wars: Starfighter?
At the heart of it, these two commercially successful filmmakers, Shawn Levy and Ryan Gosling, team up, joined by a strong supporting cast. Gosling is the star, of course, but his character's relationship with the young character played by Flynn Gray seems to be the heart of the movie. The Force will be part of it too, but Starfighter isn't expected to take on the eagle-eye view of the Sequel Trilogy, even in the aftermath of the fall of Palpatine and the First Order.
Could this be the start of a new trilogy? Maybe, but there aren't clear plans for one. In fact, Gosling and Levy are already making a Ghost Rider movie together for Marvel Studios. Maybe they come back to Star Wars if Starfighter is a massive hit, but who knows? Maybe it's a one-and-done.
At the end of the day, Starfighter is being built for theatrical release from start to finish, something Star Wars has moved away from big time in the 2020s.
That means the future of these characters will probably depend on whether fans actually go out and see it. It doesn't seem to be trying too hard to stay connected to what came before, and right now, that seems like a positive thing.
Star Wars as a whole feels pretty directionless at the moment, especially when it comes to its biggest projects. Maybe Starfighter can help recapture the magic of the 1970s and 80s, and get the movies back on track.
