Shawn Levy, the director of the upcoming Star Wars: Starfighter film, shared what the one mandate Lucasfilm gave him for the film.
In an interview with the Playlist, Levy said, “There is no mandate or interference other than the constant encouragement, ‘Make this new.’ And that’s the truth.”
“very time I’ve asked, ‘Should I use this character that was maybe in that movie?’ Every time it’s, ‘You know what? People have seen that,” he elaborated. “Do something new.”
Levy claims to be taking this mandate to heart, “It’s in a time period that’s never been in a Star Wars movie. It is not about legacy characters. And while it does have, I hope, the sense of joy and adventure that A New Hope introduced us to back in 1977, this is a new Star Wars adventure.”
The idea that he’s doing an unconnected Star Wars story is not new. He previously indicated that was the case earlier this month in an interview with Collider, “Well, for one thing, it is different in that it is an all-new non-sequel, non-prequel adventure. It’s new characters, it’s a new timeline.”
“It inherits legacy themes, but it’s really trying to give Star Wars [fans] — and just movie audiences — something fresh, something new,” he continued. “And with a spirit of play and big-hearted adventure with moments of real levity that, frankly, A New Hope had in a revolutionary way. We’re really trying to sort of take that tone as a North Star every day.”
Levy added, “It’s a huge invigorating opportunity because Lucasfilm has been so encouraging of me doing something new. There’s no pressure to be derivative or limited by an obligation to what came before. There’s just a love of what came before.”
Levy’s film was announced back in April during Star Wars Celebration in Japan and at the time it was pitched as a sequel to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. On StarWars.com, the company stated, “Set approximately five years after the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Gosling will play a brand-new character teased by the actor’s appearance on stage.”
The film is expected to arrive in theaters on Memorial Day 2027.
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I think we're all expecting more crap, right?
The point of an existing IP from the consumer's perspective is that they want MORE of the same, but different. This can be seen in the original trilogy.
We've had prequel baloney that was less of the same.
We've had a reset that was a beat-for-beat modren remake.
Stop electrifying a corpse, bro.