In April of 2025, /Movie reported that director Shawn Levy, the Hollywood journeyman behind “Huge Fats Liar,” “The Pink Panther,” “Actual Metal,” and “Deadpool & Wolverine,” can be overseeing a model new “Star Wars” movie known as “Star Wars: Starfighter.” Little is thought concerning the challenge at this juncture, aside from it’s going to star Ryan Gosling as a heretofore unknown character, and that will probably be set after the occasions of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” The huge bulk of the “Star Wars” initiatives made by Disney since its acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012 have been flashbacks, prequels, or interquels, so “Starfighter” would be the first “Star Wars” movie since 2019 to push the timeline ahead.
Mikey Madison, the Academy Award-winning star of Sean Baker’s “Anora,” was reportedly approached to play a task in “Starfighter” as nicely. Evidently, she was being tapped to play the movie’s central villainess. Madison was a rising star when she appeared in “Anora,” having already starred within the 2022 model of “Scream” and in Quentin Tarantino’s “As soon as Upon a Time… in Hollywood.” Her first main position was taking part in Max in all 52 episodes of the 2016 sequence “Higher Issues.” Madison, nevertheless, has at all times been cautious and picky about her roles, so she turned down the position in “Starfighter.” Her choice was talked about in a latest report within the Hollywood Reporter, and plainly she wasn’t okay with the wage that Disney supplied her.
Nothing else is thought about “Starfighter” at the moment, and the teaser trailer that Disney confirmed on the Star Wars Celebration press occasion in 2025 (lined on the corporate’s web site) was merely an animated title display with a proposed launch date: Might 28, 2027. It can comply with the discharge of “The Mandalorian & Grogu,” set to open on Might 22, 2026. A number of different “Star Wars” movies are within the improvement stage, however none of them but have a launch date.
Mikey Madison seemingly wished extra money
It must be acknowledged that “Star Wars” not holds the enchantment that it did a couple of decade in the past. When “Star Wars: The Drive Awakens” was launched in 2015, it toppled field workplace data, asserting that “Star Wars” was again, child. It was the primary authentic theatrical movie within the franchise since “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” in 2008, and audiences had been prepared for it. Disney introduced that they supposed to launch a significant “Star Wars” movie yearly. The odd-numbered years would function “official” chapters within the ongoing “Star Wars” saga, whereas the even-numbered years would function prequels, interquels, and different stand-alone initiatives. This was along with “Star Wars” exhibits on Disney+ and a brand new “Star Wars” space at Disneyland.
“Star Wars” overexposure took solely about 5 years. The market was flooded, and followers had been in a frenzy amid the oversaturation. It additionally did not assist that a number of of the franchise’s higher-profile initiatives had been simply plain terrible (“Solo,” “The Rise of Skywalker”) or no less than controversial (“The Final Jedi”). Though many would possibly assume that an up-and-coming actress like Mikey Madison would possibly respect the celebrity and publicity that showing in a “Star Wars” movie would possibly lend her, it is simply as protected to imagine that she’ll be ignored totally or, worse but, made the goal of a sexist on-line hate marketing campaign (ask Kelly Marie Tran about that).
So whereas the Hollywood Reporter mentioned that Madison turned down “Starfighter” due to cash, it is possible that she, a savvy businesswoman, was weighing the wage towards the grief and complications that might have most actually include starring in “Star Wars.” If Disney wasn’t going to pay her sufficient to climate a tide of on-line abuse, then she was smart to stroll away. We’ll see if Levy and Gosling have the abdomen for it.
