‘Starfighter’ Writer Teases ‘Star Wars’ Movie with Ryan Gosling (Exclusive)

The screenwriter behind Ryan Gosling’s Star Wars: Starfighter is excited for the world to see the movie, though its still over a year away from hitting theaters.

On Thursday, Jan. 15, Jonathan Tropper, who wrote the new Star Wars installment, told PEOPLE at the premiere of another movie he wrote, The Wrecking Crew, that Gosling, 45, and director Shawn Levy finished filming the movie “at the end of December.”

“I would say, I think Shawn’s made a phenomenal movie,” Tropper, 55, says, when asked for an update on the highly anticipated Starfighter. “Gosling is amazing to watch and I’m super excited to just bring new characters and new worlds to the franchise. You know, we’re doing something totally new and that’s really exciting.”

Starfighter is slated to release in theaters May 28, 2027; the movie will follow this year’s The Mandalorian and Grogu as the first Star Wars films to hit theaters since the series’ sequel trilogy concluded with 2019’sThe Rise of Skywalker. Since The Mandalorian movie is a continuation of the Disney+ series of the same title, though, Starfighter will amount to the first original Star Wars movie in years.

Little is known about the movie’s story: Gosling was introduced as the movie’s lead during a Star Wars Celebration event in Tokyo back in April 2025. Levy, 57, said at the time that the movie is a standalone film and that it is “not a prequel, not a sequel, just gives us the Star Wars DNA that we love but with an adventure that’s all new.”

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In a recent interview Levy conducted with The New York Times, that outlet reported that Starfighter takes place five years after The Rise of Skywalker and is built around a father and son. Back in September, Levy shared a photo to Instagram of Gosling and teen actor Flynn Gray on the movie’s set off the coast of Italy; he also noted in a Dec. 18th post that the movie had wrapped filming.

Star Wars: Starfighter will hit theaters May 28, 2027. The movie also stars Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre and Amy Adams, per The Hollywood Reporter.

Tropper’s other new movie, The Wrecking Crew, begins streaming on Prime Video Jan. 28.