This Starfighter Swap Quietly Made a Star Wars Movie Way Better
Director Shawn Levy says Star Wars: Starfighter just got a major third-act overhaul — a late pivot he revealed on the podcast On Film… With Kevin McCarthy — and he insists the switch makes the movie much better.
Shawn Levy is deep into Star Wars: Starfighter and just admitted he tore up a big chunk of his third act and started over. Not ideal mid-production behavior, but here we are — and he swears the new version is better.
The third-act switch that changed everything
On the podcast On Film... With Kevin McCarthy, Levy said he had an entirely different plan for the movie’s final stretch. Then the universe (scheduling, logistics, approvals — pick your poison) refused to cooperate, so he had to rethink it on the fly. He’s shooting that new material right now and, apparently, it rules.
'Every day, I’m grateful that the way I was supposed to do it didn’t work out, because the new idea that it forced me to explore is so much better than the original idea would have been.'
Why this one hits different for Levy
Levy’s done big swings for Netflix and Marvel, but he says Star Wars comes with its own brand of stress. In his words, the connection with audiences here is unusually emotional — you could make the case for other franchises, but nothing else has a fandom this devout. A lot of the pressure is self-imposed, sure, but the bar is high and he knows it.
So what is Starfighter, exactly?
This is an original Star Wars story set roughly five years after The Rise of Skywalker. Ryan Gosling leads as a guy tasked with protecting a young boy, played by Flynn Gray. The cast around them is stacked:
- Ryan Gosling
- Flynn Gray
- Matt Smith
- Mia Goth
- Aaron Pierre
- Simon Bird
- Jamael Westman
- Daniel Ings
- Amy Adams
Levy is directing from a screenplay by Jonathan Tropper. He’s also producing, alongside Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy.
When it lands
Star Wars: Starfighter is set to hit theaters on May 28, 2027.