Star Wars: Starfighter will be the franchise's first truly original movie, arguably since 1977's A New Hope, and it could define the saga's future. Since Disney took over the Star Wars franchise, the theatrical focus has been on sequels and prequels to the stories that fans know and love. Despite the sequel trilogy spotlighting new faces, such as Daisy Ridley's Rey and Adam Driver's Kylo Ren, it did so on the shoulders of familiar Star Wars OGs. Even the studio's spin-off ventures, Rogue One and Solo, had significant ties to past stories and characters.
While the franchise's next theatrical release, The Mandalorian & Grogu, will be another sequel, this time to the three-season Disney+ series, moviegoers will finally enjoy a completely original Disney-distributed Star Wars movie with Starfighter. The May 2027 release will bring Ryan Gosling into the galaxy for an epic blockbuster, directed by Deadpool & Wolverine filmmaker Shawn Levy.
Star Wars: Starfighter will finally break Lucasfilm's 12-year streak that began with 2015's The Force Awakens of releasing no truly original movies. Director Shawn Levy confirmed his movie's "all-new non-sequel, non-prequel" nature in an interview with Collider during Starfighter's filming last year:
"Well, for one thing, it is different in that it is it is an all-new non-sequel, non-prequel adventure. It's new characters. It's a new timeline."
The Starfighter filmmaker recently confirmed one of the "legacy themes" that Starfighter will inherit from the galaxy far, far away. But he was clear that, ultimately, Starfighter is about bringing "a spirit of play and big-hearted adventure" that has been seen in Star Wars long ago, but through a fresh lens:
"It inherits legacy themes, but it's really trying to give Star Wars and just movie audiences something fresh, something new, and with a spirit of play and big-hearted adventure with moments of real levity that frankly A New Hope had in a revolutionary way. And we're really trying to sort of take that tone as a north star everyday.
Levy added how the studio has, if anything, encouraged him to take Star Wars in a new direction with "no pressure to be derivative:"
"But it's a huge, invigorating opportunity, because Lucasfilm has been so encouraging of me doing something new. There's no pressure to be derivative or limited by an obligation to what came before. There's just a love of what came before."
Former Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy touched on this philosophy for future Star Wars movies last year. She declared the studio's fortunate position of being able to hire filmmakers to "tell stories that mean something to them" that don't have to "connect to every little thing that's been done in Star Wars."
Star Wars Needs to Abandon Its Interconnected Focus
Star Wars' 12-year streak of sequels, prequels, spin-offs, and everything in between is something that few fans honestly asked for. The "New Hope" when Disney acquired Lucasfilm was for completely new stories in the galaxy far, far away, and yet, most of the focus has been on capitalizing on nostalgia.
It's safe to say there has been more buzz for next year's Starfighter around the Star Wars fandom than this year's The Mandalorian & Grogu. This undeniably bodes well for its chances of success, especially given the Ryan Gosling-led epic is well over a year away and has so far dropped limited marketing.
Ultimately, Lucasfilm needs to realize that Star Wars is not the MCU, and it doesn't need familiar faces and connected universes to entice fans. More so than most franchises, fans are hooked on the galaxy far, far away for its fun, energetic sci-fi world, something which can arguably be utilized best in standalone tales.
If this willingness to tell more standalone Star Wars stories persists after the changing of the guard, as Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan replace Kathleen Kennedy, it could bode well for future movies from the sci-fi universe.
This could particularly benefit James Mangold's Dawn of the Jedi project, which will star the first Jedi and is said to be "breaking the mold" with an "incredible script," despite being on hold for now. Such a tale would be more disconnected than anything else in Star Wars right now, much to the delight of many.
The next Star Wars trilogy reportedly already cast one returning icon, but its focus is said to be on "new leads" after the events of the Skywalker Saga. If Lucasfilm is, at least mostly, willing to sever ties to the past, it has the potential to reignite interest in Star Wars in a way that is sorely needed.
