Two years before release, Star Wars fans are hoping Shawn Levy and Ryan Gosling's Starfighter movie explores past the Skywalker saga: "Tell new stories about new characters"

Kylo Ren
(Image credit: Lucasfilm)

As a new Star Wars movie heads to the big screen, fans are discussing their expectations and, most importantly, what they would like the sci-fi saga to avoid. For a lot of them, it's time to move past the Skywalker saga, and "tell new stories about new characters" that we haven't seen before.

Announced during Star Wars Celebration 2025, the new film, officially titled Star Wars: Starfighter, is helmed by Deadpool and Wolverine director Shawn Levy, with Ryan Gosling set to star. So far, we know it's a standalone story that will take place "five or six years" after The Rise of Skywalker, starting a new era for the beloved franchise.

In a recent Reddit post, fans shared their hopes and dreams for the upcoming film, which is set to start filming soon.

"I am absolutely down for writers exploring past the Skywalker Saga in any direction," said one fan. "I don't even care if the bad guys still wear white armor and fly big triangle ships. Just please PLEASE no more Empire. No more Palpatine. No more Skywalkers."

A lot of users echoed this sentiment in the Reddit conversation, with one fan mentioning three things in particular that they don't want to see in the new movie – "no Empire vs Rebellion", "no Jedi and Sith", and "no Death Stars."

"If we don't see or hear mention of any character that has ever been mentioned before then it would be a good thing," said a like-minded fan. "That goes double for just reusing characters from the Clone Wars cartoon to nostalgia bait fans of that show and ostracise anyone who didn't like it. Tell new stories about new characters. It's what everyone has been expecting from the Star Wars universe for decades."

"I just hope they actually plan out this era instead of just letting different directors fight each other for their ideas," another fan commented, recalling the apparent differences between J. J. Abrams and Rian Johnson's vision for the most recent sequels.

Others reminded the creative team at Lucasfilm that there is a lot of the Star Wars story out there that we still haven't seen on screen. "There's also like 4,000 years of Jedi/Sith lore to cover, yet we get the same time period over and over. I wanna know about the originals. I wanna know about Darth Bane, Zannah, the original Jedi vs. Sith wars, etc. Send us back in time," one fan pointed out.

We won't be travelling back in time with Starfighter, but it sounds like it will be different from what we've seen before.

Star Wars: Starfighter is scheduled for release on May 28, 2027. In the meantime, check out our rundown of all the upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows.

TOPICS
CATEGORIES
Mireia Mullor
Contributing Writer

Mireia is a UK-based culture journalist and critic. She previously worked as Deputy Movies Editor at Digital Spy, and her work as a freelance writer has appeared in WeLoveCinema and Spanish magazines Fotogramas, Esquire, and Elle. She is also a published author, having written a book about Studio Ghibli's 'Kiki's Delivery Service' in 2023. Talking about anime and musicals is the best way to grab her attention.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.