Though details are sparse, Shawn Levy’s Star Wars movie seems to be racing toward the finish line. Many names have been bandied around at Lucasfilm since the staggered release of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Shawn Levy, director of adventure flicks like ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine, Real Steel, The Adam Project, and an entire season’s worth of Netflix’s Stranger Things was announced to be working on a Star Wars movie in November 2022. Since then, development on the project has been slow, partly due to the 2023 labor strikes in Hollywood.

Now, however, numerous new reports have shed light on the project’s development, and all the signs are positive. In July 2024, The Adam Project’s Jonathan Topper was tapped to write the script. More recently, it’s been reported that a major Hollywood star is in talks to star in Levy’s film, and production may be starting much sooner than we think, potentially putting Levy’s Star Wars adventure ahead of the Rey-centric “New Jedi Order” movie and James Mangold’s “Dawn of the Jedi” project.

Shawn Levy Has Hinted His Star Wars Movie Is A Standalone

Plot-wise, we know very little about Levy’s Star Wars movie. However, the director has clarified his desire to explore more of the Star Wars timeline without being reliant on or beholden to the well-chronicled events of the Skywalker saga. Levy also hinted that his Star Wars movie would be a standalone story, one that doesn’t have to “serve another movie.” In an interview with Happy Sad Confused host Josh Horowitz, Levy said:

“I’ll say that the experience of crafting this story has forced me to think about that question. Because there’s only so many times that Star Wars movies can revisit the same section of the timeline, and so it’s really forced me — because I don’t want to do a Star Wars movie that is redundant to others, nor am I interested in doing one that has to serve another movie.

The Star Wars timeline is vast; Shawn Levy’s film could therefore explore any era, from the Old Republic to the High Republic, or even beyond the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. This is an exciting prospect as Star Wars continues to slowly but surely expand its reach and shift away from nostalgia-based storytelling.

Ryan Gosling Is In Talks To Join Shawn Levy’s Star Wars Movie

On January 21, 2025, The Hollywood Reporter broke the story that Hollywood A-lister Ryan Gosling (Blade Runner 2049, Barbie) is in talks to star in Shawn Levy’s Star Wars movie. This is a pretty major departure for Star Wars, which has historically opted to cast fresh talent in leading roles rather than utilizing a major star’s appeal to draw in audiences. Right now, there’s no word on who Gosling might potentially play – we don’t even know if it’s an already-established Star Wars character or someone entirely new, but the possibilities are endless.

There Are Rumors Shawn Levy’s Star Wars Movie Will Film Later This Year

With all this news floating around, it’s no surprise that there’s been talk of Shawn Levy’s Star Wars movie filming later this year. In December 2024, Hollywood insider Jeff Sneider reported that Levy was planning to start shooting in September 2025, a significant jump from the film’s previous “holding pattern.”

More recently, The Hollywood Reporter reported that if Ryan Gosling is officially cast in the film, Shawn Levy’s project will jump the queue and be the next theatrical Star Wars movie to start production, following the completion of principal pH๏τography for The Mandalorian & Grogu in 2024. This would corroborate Sneider’s initial report and put it on track to become the second movie in Star Wars’ upcoming theatrical slate. Given all the cinematic trouble Lucasfilm has faced over the past few years, the future of Shawn Levy’s Star Wars movie looks unusually yet excitingly bright.