Star Wars: Starfighter is shaping up as the galaxy's next big-screen event, with Ryan Gosling leading a brand-new adventure in an era the films have never visited. Directed by Shawn Levy, the standalone film carries the weight of bringing Star Wars back to theaters with an entirely new cast of characters.
Financial statements filed by Blue Mist Productions, the British company behind the shoot, put the production's costs at $226.5 million (£164.9 million) through January 31, 2026. The total covers a shoot that wrapped last December, with months of post-production spending still ahead of it.
The filings also show a reimbursement of about $51.5 million (£37.5 million) through the United Kingdom's Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit. That brings the production's net spend down to roughly $175 million, before any of the costs that have accumulated since the end of January.
Staff costs were the largest single expense listed in the filings, at $17.6 million (£12.8 million). The production employed an average of 239 people a month while the cameras were rolling.
Neither figure is a final budget for Starfighter. Visual effects, finishing work and the worldwide marketing and distribution campaign all sit on top of the reported total, so the finished cost will land higher once later statements are filed.
At the same point in its production, Starfighter had already spent more than Star Wars: The Force Awakens had spent at the comparable stage. Its spending sits roughly in line with Star Wars: The Last Jedi, while Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker had run up higher costs by the same stage.
Principal photography ran from August to December 2025, based largely at Pinewood Studios in England. The production also filmed on location in Sardinia, Italy, with cinematographer Claudio Miranda behind the camera.
Starfighter is a standalone adventure set about five years after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, in a period of the timeline the films have not visited before. Levy has built the story around an entirely new cast of characters rather than returning heroes from the Skywalker Saga.
Because the story sits outside the Skywalker Saga, the production had to invent its worlds, costumes, droids and aliens largely from scratch. That blank-page approach is part of what drew Levy to the project, along with the chance to make a personal film at blockbuster scale.
Ryan Gosling leads the film as pilot Kade Auberon, with newcomer Flynn Gray playing his nephew. Amy Adams plays Gray's mother, while Matt Smith and Mia Goth take on antagonist roles alongside Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman and Daniel Ings.
Levy directs from a screenplay by Jonathan Tropper, his collaborator on The Adam Project. Thomas Newman is composing the score, and the film is produced by Lucasfilm and Levy's 21 Laps Entertainment.
The spending lands at a delicate moment for the franchise on the big screen. The Mandalorian and Grogu finished its theatrical run at roughly $342 million worldwide earlier this year, a result that fell well short of the grosses the sequel trilogy delivered.
Star Wars: Starfighter opens in theaters on May 28, 2027. Later filings from Blue Mist Productions will eventually show how much higher the final cost climbed once post-production and release spending are counted.
