Published Apr 4, 2026, 11:55 AM EDT
Josh Bate is a film and television journalist specializing in blockbuster franchises, ndie films, and everywhere in between. Josh is the co-creator of Star Wars Holocron and The Holofiles, which have since amassed over 300,000 followers on social media.
A member of both the Chicago Indie Critics and the Hollywood Critics Alliance, Josh has covered major industry events including Star Wars Celebration and CinemaCon. His work has appeared in outlets such as Game Rant and Comic Book Resources (CBR), and he has been featured in publications including the BBC and The New York Times.
After years of being away, Star Wars is finally set to return to the big screen with The Mandalorian and Grogu, which releases in theaters next month. It seems that Lucasfilm and Disney don't plan on stopping there either, with Star Wars: Starfighter scheduled for May 2027.
Starfighter is one of the boldest Star Wars projects in recent years. It has a cast of all original characters and is set after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, making this the furthest set film in the timeline. Because of that, a lot is riding on Starfighter, and the film needs to steer clear of a few errors in order to be successful.
Starfighter Must Embrace The Sequel Trilogy
Starfighter is an incredibly important film for the Star Wars franchise for a variety of reasons. For one, as stated, its place as a story set five years after Episode IX means that it takes place in a remarkably different period in canon than other recent projects like The Mandalorian and Grogu or the Ahsoka series.
In Starfighter, the cast of characters from the original trilogy is all gone. Luke became one with the Force in The Last Jedi, and Han Solo met his end at the hands of his own son in The Force Awakens. Leia, meanwhile, sacrificed herself in the final film of the trilogy in order to save her son, Kylo Ren/Ben Solo.
Starfighter has only some sequel trilogy characters around. Rey Skywalker is still around and may have a surprise appearance in the film if some fan theories can be believed, and Finn is likely a Jedi at this point in canon as well. Kylo Ren won't be as he traded his life for Rey's at the end of the sequel trilogy.
This means that Starfighter is much more aligned with the sequels than the prequel trilogy, which is where Star Wars' attention has been for a number of years now. The Mandalorian and Grogu, for example, features characters like Rotta the Hutt and Embo, both of whom appeared in The Clone Wars.
There are more subtle references, too, such as droids and super battle droids acting as bodyguards for the Hutt twins in the latest trailer for the film. There are inherently more links to the prequels than the sequels in those stories, but in Starfighter, its place in the timeline means it has to embrace the last trilogy of the Skywalker Saga.
Failure to do so would hurt Starfighter's story, as its far along place in the timeline is one of the most unique elements of the new film, and should be embraced rather than shunned.
Starfighter Shouldn't Bring Back The Sith
Similarly, Starfighter should also embrace a true ending to the Skywalker Saga. In The Rise of Skywalker, Emperor Palpatine meets his end at the hands of Rey and Ben Solo, being blown away along with the entirety of his Sith kingdom (and his followers). This not only meant the end of Palpatine, but of the Sith as a whole.
Starfighter, then, should continue down that path rather than resurrecting past villains and/or villain groups. Fans already know that Dark Side Force users are in the movie as the primary antagonists, with Mia Goth and Matt Smith playing the villains in the new film.
It's important that these characters belong to a different denomination of the dark side rather than continuing on with the Sith, for many reasons. Continuing the story of the Sith would be overly repetitive.
The Sith (and Palpatine specifically) have been the villains of virtually every Star Wars project, either directly or indirectly. Starfighter now has an opportunity to move beyond that, thus creating new Star Wars lore and expanding the galaxy in the process.
Star Wars Lore Must Be Expanded
The said expansion of Star Wars lore is another huge area Starfighter should focus on. Some of the worst projects made by Disney, such as The Mandalorian season 3, for example, fail not only because of narrative mistakes but because of an air of repetition as well.
The Mandalorian season 3 failed to expand upon Star Wars lore overall, and instead had rehashed plot lines including Bo-Katan Kryze becoming the leader of Mandalore, which was already done in both Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. As a result, the season felt stale.
The world around the characters didn't evolve enough, which made the galaxy feel smaller than it ever had before. This is another effect of sticking too closely with the prequels as well, as the season seemed more interested in reliving the highs of the George Lucas-directed films rather than exploring something new and unique.
Starfighter mustn't follow the path of The Mandalorian season 3. The upcoming film has an incredible opportunity to show a completely different side of the Star Wars galaxy, not only because of its place in canon but because it features an entirely new set of heroes and villains.
Doing so would then go a long way to justify Starfighter's existence as a Star Wars film. Every theatrically released story set in a galaxy far, far away has expanded Star Wars in some way. Some have done so more than others, with The Last Jedi being a prime example of turning a new page in the franchise's history (and lore).
Starfighter Needs To Look And Feel Like A Movie That Belongs In Theaters
Starfighter's place as only the second Star Wars film this decade means that it has an obligation to tell a story worth seeing on the big screen. This means that the film must have a big scale story and visuals to match as well.
Story-wise, it's hard to top The Rise of Skywalker, which had the return of Emperor Palpatine and thousands of brand new, extremely powerful star destroyers in his control. Starfighter doesn't need to try and top that, and doing so would likely be detrimental to its quality overall.
However, it could take some lessons from the sequel trilogy in order to justify its place as a Star Wars movie. For one, the sequels are some of the best looking Star Wars stories ever made, in live action and animation. The Last Jedi, in particular, has stunning cinematography which goes along well with the grand and epic tale that writer/director Rian Johnson is telling.
The films on either side of Episode VIII, The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker, also excel visually. Planets like Jakku and Exegol pop on the screen, and this goes a long way to add to the scale of the stories.
Starfighter, then, can try to match these sorts of visuals in order to be a film that deserves to be seen on the biggest screen possible.
Starfighter Must Differentiate Itself From The Mandalorian
As stated, a core point of uniqueness of Star Wars: Starfighter is that it's set in a very different period of time from The Mandalorian and the rest of the stories in that era, such as The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and Skeleton Crew. This allows it to be truly different from those shows, thus standing out more.
Doing so would also help the Star Wars franchise as well. Currently, the majority of Star Wars stories being told are along the same lines as one another. Maul: Shadow Lord, for example, which releases on Disney+ this month, has the same vibe as The Mandalorian and Ahsoka, with Dave Filoni playing a big part in all three.
Andor is a great example of what can happen if writers decide to make their story distinct from The Mandalorian. Andor is gritty and much darker in tone than the Jon Favreau-created shows, which makes it immediately stand out.
This isn't to say that The Mandalorian or its related shows are bad in any way. Din Djarin and Grogu are the heart of the franchise right now, and for good reason. Their bond is something that audiences can emotionally resonate with right away, and it seems that there will be many more Mando and Grogu stories in the years to come.
However, there is something to be said about telling a story that differentiates itself from that. Audiences may (and have, especially with Andor) enjoy a change of pace, with a different kind of storytelling that aids the franchise in continuing to feel fresh and new. Ultimately, variance is the key to Star Wars.
If every story were like The Mandalorian, then that would make the franchise stale. If every story were like Andor, that would also make the franchise stale, too, meaning that Starfighter should carve its own place in a galaxy far, far away rather than doing something repetitive or leaning too heavily on other stories.
Again, the more unique director Shawn Levy and co. make Starfighter, the more successful it will be.
Star Wars: Starfighter releases in theaters on May 27, 2027.
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