Star Wars’ Next Movie Is a Franchise First After 50 Years (& It Badly Needs It)

Star Wars is back on the big screen, and its next theatrical outing will be something the franchise hasn’t seen since 1977. The Mandalorian and Grogu hasn’t exactly brought the saga roaring back to life: it’s divided critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, and while it should be profitable due to a relatively lower budget (reportedly around $166m), its box office looks like it’ll be closer to Solo: A Star Wars Story’s $393m than the billion-dollar hits of Episodes 7-9. Add in merch and streaming and it should be fine, but there’s a sense the franchise’s “real” return comes next year.

2027 marks the 50th anniversary of Star Wars, and there’ll be plenty to celebrate. Star Wars Celebration will take place in Los Angeles, A New Hope‘s original cut is being re-released in theatres, and there’ll be more Disney+ offerings, including Ahsoka Season 2. The crown jewel of it all, though, is Star Wars: Starfighter, the next movie outing. It takes the May release slot, coming almost 50 years to the day since the original Star Wars, and marks Lucasfilm’s new hope for the saga.

Star Wars: Starfighter Is Something Brand New (& That’s A Good Thing)

For the first time since George Lucas’ 1977 movie, a Star Wars movie will be entirely focused on original characters, with no connections to the wider story. This obviously cannot be said about the Skywalker Saga movies (aka the Episodes), while Rogue One directly led into A New Hope (and featured Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin, and others), Solo was, well, about Han Solo (and Chewbacca), and The Mandalorian and Grogu is a continuation of the TV series.

As far as we know, at least, there’ll be no familiar characters in Starfighter‘s story. It takes us into uncharted territory, set five years after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and has been described as a true standalone. It’ll be led by Ryan Gosling as a pilot who has to take a young child (Flynn Gray) to safety, and while its expected there’ll be several known concepts – it’s confirmed to have lightsaber fights, and Gray’s character is expected to be Force-sensitive – it’ll be a brand-new adventure in a different part of a galaxy far, far away.

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It’s even unique compared to A New Hope: Lucas already had at least some plans for sequels and where those stories would go when it released, whereas Starfighter currently seems planned as a one-and-done. Unless, of course, it’s a major box office hit, which it has a pretty good chance of being.

Gosling’s had mixed success as a movie lead in that regard, but he’s coming off the back of a massive original Sci-Fi movie in Project Hail Mary, so his arrival in the franchise is perfectly timed. Likewise, director Shawn Levy doesn’t have the strongest track record, and isn’t a well-known name who’ll draw people in, but Deadpool & Wolverine proved he can make a crowd-pleasing, butts-in-seats franchise blockbuster.

That it is being billed as a true standalone ought to work in its favor. There’s no homework, no baggage, and while The Mandalorian & Grogu can be watched and understood by anyone, it carries with it the Disney+ era and a feeling by some it’s just a long episode of the streaming show. Starfighter is wholly fresh, and thus untainted by any of the division that has come before, or at least as much as any Star Wars movie can be.

It’d be remiss not to mention, of course, rumors of a connection to Rey’s New Jedi Order film. This certainly seems plausible if Gray’s character really is a Force-sensitive child, and its connectivity that probably makes enough sense and would be used only at the very end, so it wouldn’t actually harm Starfighter’s own plot in any way. I’d probably still prefer it avoid this, on balance, especially given it’s been three years and there’s no sign of the Rey movie happening anytime soon. This is also very much unverified, so based solely on what’s official, it is entirely disconnected.

Starfighter needs to feel like a big, event-worthy movie – Top Gun: Maverick is as good a comparison as anything from the Lucasfilm saga (and it has the same cinematographer, which is a good start). Unfettered by the past, it can mark the start of an exciting new future.

Star Wars: Starfighter flies into theaters on May 27th, 2027.

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