Why Ryan Gosling Couldn't Turn Down Star Wars: Starfighter

He passed on the MCU and DCEU—now three-time Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling is blasting off with Star Wars: Starfighter, revealing what finally made him say yes.

Ryan Gosling has spent most of his career dodging shared universes and cape obligations. Now he is suiting up for Star Wars. While doing press for his other trip to space, Project Hail Mary from Phil Lord and Chris Miller, he finally explained why Star Wars: Starfighter got a yes when so many other franchises got a polite pass.

Gosling, famously franchise-averse, takes the plunge

The resume speaks for itself: Half Nelson, Blue Valentine, Drive, La La Land. He does scale when the filmmaker is the point, like Blade Runner 2049 with Denis Villeneuve or Barbie with Greta Gerwig, but those were not built as the first bricks in a mega-franchise wall.

Studios have tried. In 2014, both Marvel and DC circled him for their 2016 slate. He was on the shortlist for Doctor Strange before Benedict Cumberbatch locked it down. Warner Bros. offered him Joker in Suicide Squad; he walked, and Jared Leto took the role. He has even floated interest in playing Ghost Rider in the MCU, a neat nod to his wife Eva Mendes, who played Roxanne Simpson in the 2007 Ghost Rider.

So why Star Wars now?

Short answer: Shawn Levy. The Deadpool & Wolverine director is behind Star Wars: Starfighter, and that is what turned the key for Gosling. As he put it while out promoting Hail Mary:

"It was Shawn's enthusiasm and his vision and the script. And I just avoided these things because they never felt right. And I'm glad I did because I feel like, similar to a book like this, it was worth waiting for. And it is like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

What Starfighter is and where it sits

Details are locked up tight, but here is the shape of it: the film lands five years after The Rise of Skywalker and marks the first time a movie has stepped into the post-sequel era. Gosling plays a mentor figure to a young boy, possibly his nephew, played by Flynn Gray. The project is intended as a standalone, but this galaxy tends to leave doors open.

• Cast: Ryan Gosling, Flynn Gray, Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Amy Adams, Jamael Westman, Simon Bird, Daniel Igns

How the studio is feeling

Behind the scenes, there is some hand-wringing about The Mandalorian and Grogu at the box office. On the flip side, early chatter says executives are happy with what they are seeing from Starfighter, with one line of feedback praising Levy for having "recaptured the franchise's spirit of fun."

Timing, and what it could mean for Gosling

Star Wars: Starfighter hits theaters May 27, 2027. If it connects and the door swings open for a follow-up, that would be a first for Gosling: he has never reprised a character. Between Hail Mary and this, he is spending a lot of time in space, but one of these missions might actually make him a regular in a galaxy far, far away.