{"id":431280,"date":"2026-01-25T00:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T00:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/431280\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T00:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T00:36:09","slug":"ryan-goslings-star-wars-movies-franchise-connections-rumored-returning-characters-addressed-by-writer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/431280\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Gosling&#8217;s Star Wars Movie&#8217;s Franchise Connections &#038; Rumored Returning Characters Addressed By Writer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ryan Gosling is heading to a galaxy far, far away for <a href=\"https:\/\/screenrant.com\/db\/movie\/star-wars-starfighter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Star Wars: Starfighter<\/a>, though he may not be joined by any familiar faces. <\/p>\n<p>The upcoming film, helmed by <a href=\"https:\/\/screenrant.com\/star-wars-shawn-levy-movie-everything-we-know\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Deadpool &amp; Wolverine&#8217;s Shawn Levy<\/a>, has largely been wrapped in mystery, with its plot still unknown, save for it being said to take place a few years after the events of sequel trilogy ender Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Kicking off production in August 2025, Levy assembled a massive ensemble cast around Gosling, including Doctor Who&#8217;s Matt Smith, MaXXXine&#8217;s Mia Goth, Lanterns&#8217; Aaron Pierre and six-time Oscar nominee Amy Adams, among others.<\/p>\n<p>Now, in an interview with ScreenRant&#8217;s Liam Crowley for his Prime Video action comedy The Wrecking Crew, Jonathan Tropper offered some insight into what&#8217;s to come from Star Wars: Starfighter. The writer first turned to the recent reveal that Tom Cruise visited the set and helped design a lightsaber fight in the film, expressing being &#8220;so bummed that I missed him&#8221; as he left the set three days prior to Cruise&#8217;s arrival, which Tropper &#8220;couldn&#8217;t believe I missed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Expanding on lightsabers being included in the film and evolving the franchise in a new direction, Tropper went on to share that his and Levy&#8217;s goal was to &#8220;tell a completely new story&#8221; with Star Wars: Starfighter. Looking at the wider connections to the series, he stated that they &#8220;weren&#8217;t bound by any structures of the past movies,&#8221; and as such were able to avoid having to include too many familiar elements, namely returning characters:<\/p>\n<p>Jonathan Tropper: Obviously, lightsabers are a part of that universe and that part of that galaxy. I&#8217;m so careful not to reveal anything, but essentially, I think it&#8217;s known that we have no legacy characters. You&#8217;re not going to see any of the characters you&#8217;ve seen in the other movies. So there are certain things that are still hallmarks of Star Wars that it&#8217;s good to have in there. But more than that, I can&#8217;t say.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the movie&#8217;s development and production, Levy and exiting Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy frequently indicated that Star Wars: Starfighter would be a standalone story in the franchise. However, that hasn&#8217;t stopped both rumors and reports of legacy characters returning for the film, namely that <a href=\"https:\/\/screenrant.com\/star-wars-starfighter-new-jedi-order-setup-theory\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Daisy Ridley&#8217;s Rey would appear<\/a> in the film in some capacity, with Kennedy having even mentioned the possibility for sequel trilogy characters to return in the film. <\/p>\n<p>        <img width=\"1650\" height=\"928\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ryan Gosling and Flynn Gray in Star Wars Starfighter\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ryan-gosling-and-flynn-gray-in-star-wars-starfighter.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ryan-gosling-and-flynn-gray-in-star-wars-starfighter.jpg\"\/><br \/>\n        Ryan Gosling and Flynn Gray in Star Wars Starfighter<\/p>\n<p>This would have made sense for a variety of reasons. For starters, setting Starfighter just a few years after The Rise of Skywalker&#8217;s ending would likely put Gosling&#8217;s character and others in the path of the sequel trilogy characters as they try to restore a semblance of order to the universe. More importantly, <a href=\"https:\/\/screenrant.com\/star-wars-rey-return-new-jedi-order-story-timeline-cast\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a Rey-focused Star Wars movie<\/a> has been in the works for a few years, with it said to be set 15 years after the 2019 sequel trilogy installment, therefore giving Starfighter the opportunity to set the movie up.<\/p>\n<p>        <img width=\"440\" height=\"364\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Rey New Jedi Order Movie Custom Star Wars Image\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/rey-new-jedi-order-movie-custom-star-wars-image.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/rey-new-jedi-order-movie-custom-star-wars-image.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                    Related<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/screenrant.com\/star-wars-new-jedi-order-need-to-happen-after-rise-of-skywalker\/\" title=\"10 Things I Need To Happen In Rey&#039;s New Jedi Order Movie After The Rise Of Skywalker\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t10 Things I Need To Happen In Rey&#8217;s New Jedi Order Movie After The Rise Of Skywalker<br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"display-card-excerpt\">Following the Rise of Skywalker and the end of the Skywalker saga, here are 10 things that need to happen with Rey&#8217;s upcoming New Jedi Order movie.<\/p>\n<p>With Tropper now confirming that Star Wars: Starfighter will essentially be a true standalone story in the franchise, the film is certainly on track to be the most unique title in a while. Even as it&#8217;s grown on Disney+ with The Mandalorian and its various spinoffs, they&#8217;ve all still featured a variety of legacy characters making appearances to tie things to the wider universe, particularly Mark Hamill&#8217;s Luke Skywalker and Rosario Dawson&#8217;s Ahsoka Tano. However, given <a href=\"https:\/\/screenrant.com\/star-wars-solo-come-to-love\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Star Wars&#8217; last theatrical attempt<\/a> at an anthology route was the financial disaster Solo, it will be interesting to see if longtime fans of the series embrace or reject Gosling&#8217;s film.<\/p>\n<p>        <img width=\"960\" height=\"1440\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Star Wars Starfighter logo poster\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/star-wars-starfighter-logo-poster.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/star-wars-starfighter-logo-poster.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                                            Release Date<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMay 28, 2027<\/p>\n<p>                                            Director<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShawn Levy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryan Gosling is heading to a galaxy far, far away for Star Wars: Starfighter, though he may not&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,75,337],"class_list":{"0":"post-431280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}