After nearly nabbing a role in “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” British actor Matt Smith has been reportedly cast as the main villain of Shawn Levy‘s “Star Wars: Starfighter.”
This massive casting update on the next “Star Wars” feature film, since Jon Favreau‘s “The Mandalorian & Grogu” has been filmed and is in the post-production process, comes to us from Deadline.
Previously, it was announced that Canadian actor Ryan Gosling had secured the lead heroic role in the pic, which is said to be set 5 years after the events of “The Rise of Skywalker.” Mia Goth had also joined the project earlier in the year.
Jonathan Topper, the screenwriter of Levy’s “The Adam Project,” is behind the new movie’s script and jumped the production pipeline at Lucasfilm as there still seems to be retooling going on with Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy‘s “Star Wars: New Jedi Order” starring Daisy Ridley as Rey Skywalker and James Mangold‘s “Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi,” an adventure story set 25,000 years in the past.
Most recently, Smith took a role in Darren Aronofsky‘s “Caught Stealing,” led by Austin Butler, with other credits including HBO‘s “House of the Dragon” (in its third season), “The Crown,” “Last Night in Soho,” and playing the Eleventh Doctor on the “Doctor Who” series. There is a bit of connection between Gosling and Smith, as he had a rather large role in Gosling’s directorial effort “Lost River,” making this a bit of a reunion of sorts.
Currently, we’re in the dark about plot details; however, the film’s title could indicate a pilot-driven storyline, given “Star Wars: Starfighter” is also the name of an existing video game (there is one called “Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter“), where gamers get to pilot different “starfighters” (tactical gun ships) from across the universe. We still have some time before it arrives in theaters, as Disney has set the release date for May 28, 2027.
Christopher Marc is lead writer at The Playlist and the primary engine behind our daily news coverage. Chris is based in Canada and tracks everything from Marvel and Star Wars developments to arthouse acquisitions and festival buzz with equal enthusiasm and an instinct for the story readers actually want to read.
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