Star Wars: Starfighter just set up the franchise’s new Luke Skywalker replacement, decades after the character was first introduced in the original Star Wars movie. Shawn Levy’s Star Wars: Starfighter is set to arrive in theaters on May 28, 2027, almost exactly 50 years after George Lucas’ first Star Wars movie, later reтιтled A New Hope, premiered in cinemas and changed Hollywood forever.

Of course, it’s no surprise that Lucasfilm would choose to debut a new movie in such a pivotal year for the franchise, but it seems Star Wars: Starfighter will celebrate Star Wars‘ origin in more than one way. While few details about the story have been released so far, those that have been published seem specifically curated to evoke nostalgia for A New Hope and Luke Skywalker, in particular.

Flynn Gray’s New Character Is Skywalker-Coded

Starring Ryan Gosling, young Irish actor Flynn Gray, and several big-name stars like Amy Adams, Mia Goth, Matt Smith, and Aaron Pierre, Starfighter is set to take place five years after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and will present a wholly original, standalone story. According to a previous report by The Hollywood Reporter, Gosling will be portraying a character forced to protect a “young charge” from “evil pursuers.”

While the Starfighter тιтle certainly implies that Gosling will be a pilot of some kind, perhaps even a Force-sensitive one – Star Wars: Starfighter was an early 2000s video game in which gamers played as starfighter pilots during Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace‘s invasion of Naboo – Gray’s role is even more interesting.

A youngster being hunted by villains would imply there’s more to him than meets the eye; perhaps he’s a new kind of “Chosen One” character, a Messianic figure of some sort – just like Luke Skywalker turned out to be.

When we first met Luke on Tatooine in A New Hope, he wasn’t being hunted, per se, but knowledge of his existence was dangerous. He was destined to become the hope of the Jedi, after all, and as we later learned, the Empire had done everything in its power to wipe the Jedi from the galaxy.

That’s not to say that Flynn Gray’s character will end up being a Jedi, though in this brand-new era of Star Wars storytelling, anything is possible. Whoever Matt Smith and Mia Goth’s villains end up being, their knowing (or at least, believing) that Gray’s character is Force-sensitive, much like Luke, would surely be a legitimate reason for them to come after him.

The First Image From Starfighter Teases A New Luke

To celebrate the start of Star Wars: Starfighter‘s production at the end of August, Lucasfilm released an image (seen above) of Gosling and Gray sitting on a landspeeder. Though the design has been modified, the speeder looks suspiciously like the one Luke and Obi-Wan Kenobi used to get around on Tatooine in A New Hope, especially the slim frame and the rounded front.

Other characters in other Star Wars productions have used landspeeders since then, of course, as they’ve become a major part of Star Wars’ worldbuilding. Yet the way the image is presented, as though the speeder will be a part of Gosling and Gray’s Star Wars story rather than just a background prop, once again suggests that Gray’s character will take after Luke Skywalker, even in the smallest of ways.

Star Wars Is Celebrating ANH’s Anniversary In The Best Way

2027 will be an undeniably big year for Star Wars, and not just because it’s the franchise’s 50th anniversary.

Star Wars: Starfighter represents the start of a new era, as the movie will kickstart the exploration of a completely uncharted part of the Star Wars timeline. Anything can happen next. New villains, new lore, new conflicts. What better way to celebrate A New Hope’s monumental impact than by taking a leap of faith into the unknown, the same way Lucas did with his first fantasy space opera?

For the past few years, Star Wars has been surviving off prequels, spinoffs, and legacy character cameos. Though The Mandalorian was a wonderfully fresh proposition when season 1 first premiered on Disney+ in 2019, it has since become a vehicle for continuing other, older storylines. That doesn’t make 2026’s The Mandalorian and Grogu any less exciting, but it also highlights why Starfighter feels like the true start of something new.

As we already know that Starfighter will be a fully original, and most importantly, standalone story, I can forgive the obvious nods to Luke Skywalker’s first appearance. In fact, I’m willing to embrace them. Acknowledging Gray’s character’s similarities to Luke in this scenario doesn’t feel like nostalgia bait. His story won’t be Luke’s story, how could it be?

This is the best way for Star Wars to honor A New Hope‘s anniversary: introducing a new story, with new characters, inspired but not overly influenced by what came before.

Given what we already know, I doubt we have another Star Wars: The Force Awakens situation on our hands. As Star Wars branches out into new eras and genres, Star Wars: Starfighter feels like the perfect tribute to the start of a galaxy far, far away – a riff on an old classic, rather than a remake.

Star Wars: Starfighter arrives in theaters on May 28, 2027.