Ryan Gosling Gives Fans A First Look At His ‘Star Wars’ Movie

The “Barbie” actor has been a fan of the Lucasfilm franchise for quite a while, revealing that he even slept in “Star Wars” sheets while growing up.

It seems that Gosling was eager to warm up to fans at Star Wars Celebration, hosted this year in Japan. He graced the stage wearing a hat sporting the infamous Han Solo quote, “Never tell me the odds.” While promoting the new film, he shared a photo of his childhood bedsheets, which was sent in by his mother.

“She still has them, obviously,” Gosling told the enthusiastic crowd. “Naturally, she thought that it might be something that the fans would appreciate, but I suspect that she just sort of wants to justify years of hoarding.”

“As you can see from the picture, I guess I was probably dreaming about Star Wars before I even saw the film,” he continued, most likely referring to the “The Empire Strikes Back” logo written on the sheets. “And it’s probably framed my idea of what a movie even was.”

Director Shawn Levy has been working on this movie for around two years, but “Star Wars” fans have been skeptical whether it would ever come to fruition. At the last Star Wars Celebration event, Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy teased three films: one reprising Daisy Ridley’s Rey, a James Mangold feature about the history of the Force, and one bringing The Mandalorian and Grogu to the big screen. Of those films, only the last one has made any real progress and will hit theaters in May 2026.

Gosling’s film will be called “Star Wars: Starfighter” and will debut in theaters on May 28, 2027 – almost one year after “The Mandalorian & Grogu.” Interestingly enough, this is only three weeks after “Avengers: Secret Wars” debuts on May 7, 2027.

At this time, it is unknown if “Starfighter” has any connection to the 2001 game with the same name. The film will start production this fall and take place around five years after 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker,” which marks the last time a “Star Wars” film has hit theaters.

Although the plot details are still under wraps, Gosling has nothing but positive things to say about his new movie.

“The reality is that this script is just so good. It has such a great story with great and original characters,” the actor said. “It’s filled with so much heart and adventure, and there just really is not a more perfect filmmaker for this particular story than Shawn.”

Levy also made comments from the stage, reassuring fans that this film had nothing to do with the nine-episode Skywalker Saga and the story of Luke Skywalker.

“This is a stand-alone. It’s not a prequel, not a sequel. It’s a new adventure. It’s set in a period of time that we haven’t seen explored yet,” Levy said.

Before Ryan Gosling’s feature was announced, Star Wars Celebration opened on April 18 with a look at the Mandalorian movie, based on the Disney+ series “The Mandalorian.” The footage shown exclusively to Celebration audiences featured new characters played by Hollywood heavyweights Sigourney Weaver and Jeremy Allen White.

Both Pedro Pascal, who plays the titular Mandalorian, and Sigourney Weaver received standing ovations when they walked out onto the stage to introduce the film. Also joining them were director Jon Favreau and co-writer Dave Filoni.

Although the event has taken place in Orlando, Anaheim, and London, to name a few, Favreau revealed that they decided to host this event in Japan for a special reason.

“When I think about Star Wars and what inspired Star Wars, it’s so inextricably tied to Japanese cinema, Japanese culture, and tradition. George Lucas was very inspired by the filmmakers of Japan, and to come back here, it feels like a homecoming,” he said.

Pascal also seemed to feel nostalgic as he looked back at how he was first cast in the franchise. “I’ll never forget the first day that I got to sit down with Jon and Dave in the writers’ room, and they showed me, wall-to-wall story illustrations of the first season of Mandalorian, without me even understanding who they expected me to play,” he explained.

“And I remember just seeing the greatest visual storyboards that I had ever seen, and knowing that people were going to lose their minds,” he added.

“The Mandalorian & Grogu” will be released in theaters on May 22, 2026.