2027 Star Wars Movie Finally Delivers on the Sequel Trilogy’s Matt Smith Promise

Shawn Levy just dropped a meaty update on his Star Wars movie, and it comes with a twist longtime fans will appreciate: Matt Smith is finally getting the Star Wars moment he almost had and then lost back in the Rise of Skywalker days.

Where things stand

Levy says Star Wars: Starfighter is a little past the halfway point in production. The shoot, by his own description, has been a daily cocktail of big swings, logistical chaos, and pure fun. The film is set in the years after The Rise of Skywalker, making it the next chapter in the post-sequel era.

Release-wise, Lucasfilm is lining up two theatrical outings after a long break from cinemas: The Mandalorian and Grogu hits first on May 22, 2026, and Starfighter follows on May 28, 2027. Levy is directing and producing Starfighter alongside Kathleen Kennedy.

Matt Smith, take two

If you remember the rumors from 2019: Matt Smith was reportedly going to play a younger incarnation of Sheev Palpatine in The Rise of Skywalker. Rewrites wiped that character before cameras rolled, and Smith never showed up. Levy told ScreenRant that Starfighter is essentially the universe evening the score for Smith, and he did not mince words about it.

'For him, too, he feels like it's destiny fulfilled.'

Levy said he read the old stories about Smith and then got the real backstory from multiple sources. Bottom line: Smith coming aboard Starfighter feels like a long-planned course correction, at least to the people involved.

The cast, the vibes, the tease

• Matt Smith
• Ryan Gosling
• Flynn Gray
• Mia Goth
• Amy Adams
• Aaron Pierre
• Simon Bird
• Jamael Westman
• Daniel Ings

Levy is clearly thrilled with the bench. He singled out Gosling as not just a great lead but a real creative partner on the movie, and he says collaborating with Goth, Smith, and Adams has been even more creatively satisfying than he expected.

Two behind-the-scenes photos are already floating around that show Gosling and Flynn Gray’s characters in action. Meanwhile, Smith starts filming in December while the team locks his costume and character design.

Early chatter suggests Smith and Mia Goth are playing villains this time around, which would track with Smith’s previously rumored connection to the Palpatine side of things. That part is not confirmed, but it definitely fits the pattern.

The takeaway

Starfighter is over the hump, it lives in the post-sequel timeline, and Levy is positioning Matt Smith as a key piece of it after his Episode IX near-miss. If the tea leaves about Smith and Goth skewing villainous prove true, we might be getting the dark-side flavor that never made it into The Rise of Skywalker. Either way, circle May 28, 2027.