By George & Josh Bate
While promoting Stranger Things 5 on On Film…with Kevin McCarthy, Star Wars: Starfighter director Shawn Levy discussed his upcoming film, what Star Wars film it is most similar to, the renowned composer who will compose the score for the film, and more.
Levy’s upcoming adventure in a galaxy far, far away is currently in production, meaning all the pieces of the puzzle are coming together ahead of the planned May 2027 release date. In speaking with McCarthy, Levy compared Starfighter to an unexpected Star Wars movie.
“Everyone’s like, ‘Which Star Wars movie is Starfighter most inspired by?’ If I’m being honest, I know the cool answer would be Empire. Sure. And sort of the inarguable answer would be New Hope. But it’s kind of [Return of the] Jedi. It’s Jedi, because the combination of theme, levity, adventure, heart, spectacle. Somehow that movie just got it right for me.”
Also in the interview, Levy revealed that Starfighter will be scored by Thomas Newman. The recipient of 15 Academy Award nominations and six Grammy Awards, Newman is a prolific composer of movies dating back to the 1980s. His most notable works include The Shawshank Redemption, Meet Joe Black, The Green Mile, The Lost Boys, Road to Perdition, Finding Nemo, WALL-E, American Beauty, Skyfall, Spectre, and 1917.
John Williams’ influence looms large over Star Wars music to this day, but Levy has told to Newman to go in his own direction with the score.
“It’s not going to be remixes of Williams’ cues. It may be inspired by some of that, but I knew that I need a big-hearted movie score from a composer who, like John Williams, doesn’t shy away from themes.”
Levy also revealed that the third act of Star Wars: Starfighter, which is currently shooting, was entirely reworked from its original plan.
“There was something unexpected on Starfighter,” Levy said. “It was, we had a whole different idea for something in the third act and then things didn’t align and I was forced to come up with a new idea. And I’m literally right now shooting that section of the movie. And everyday 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.”
Candidly disclosing what it was like to initially direct a Star Wars movie, Levy described the experience of “self-inflicted” “pressure” as “oppressive.”
“The first few weeks of shooting, it felt like this oppressive sort of cloud over me, because everyday they would come to me,” Levy described. “It’s a hundred questions a day. And especially Starfighter, it’s not a sequel, it’s not a prequel, it’s not legacy characters. And it’s not in a period of time in the galaxy that’s ever been explored….What this means is that we are inventing everything in the movie. And the desire to make design choices, character choices, planet choices, costume choices, droid choices, alien choices, all of it needs to feel Star Wars-y.”
Despite the constraints that come with working on a Star Wars movie, Levy appeared passionate to make Starfighter as original as possible.
“I’m freaking determined to not let any of it feel derivative or lazily copycat.”
Restating what he said in a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Levy confirmed that Kathleen Kennedy told him to make any Star Wars movie he wanted. “Make it original. You pick the writer. You pick the story. Just make it feel like a Shawn Levy movie. Make it warm-hearted and fun and built for audience delight,” Levy describes Kennedy’s mandate as.
Every additional piece of information we hear about Star Wars: Starfighter gets us more and more excited about the film. The director of Deadpool & Wolverine and Stranger Things, the composer of The Shawshank Redemption and American Beauty, the writer of Banshee, and Ryan Gosling are all making a Star Wars movie? Count us in.
Star Wars: Starfighter speeds into theaters on May 28, 2027.