Star Wars: Starfighter’s Budget Record: Why Ryan Gosling’s Film Already Made History
Ryan Gosling’s Star Wars film has not released a trailer, has not revealed its full story, and is still more than six months from theatres. It has already made Star Wars history, though the record comes with a massive financial risk. According to a newly surfaced financial filing in the United Kingdom, Disney spent 226.5 million dollars on Star Wars: Starfighter from the start of production through January 31, 2026, just over a month after filming wrapped. That figure beats what Star Wars: The Force Awakens had spent at a comparable stage, roughly 198.2 million dollars. For a standalone film with all-new characters, that is a remarkable amount of money to have spent before post-production is even finished.
The numbers come from Blue Mist Productions, the Disney subsidiary set up for the picture, and were compiled from filings reported by Forbes. The accounts cover the period ending January 31, 2026, even though they were published in October, and they show Disney has already banked a 51.5 million dollar reimbursement through the United Kingdom government’s Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit, which returns up to 25.5 percent of qualifying production spending. That brings Starfighter’s net spend so far down to roughly 175 million dollars, with further credits from Italy also reported. These are spending snapshots, not final budgets, and they are not adjusted for inflation. Months of post-production still lie ahead, including visual effects, sound design and scoring, all of which will push the total higher. Whether Starfighter becomes the most expensive Star Wars film ever will depend on that final stretch, but it is already in that conversation.
What is the film, exactly? Directed by Shawn Levy, the director of Deadpool and Wolverine, and written by Jonathan Tropper, who has been developing the project with Levy since 2022, Starfighter is scheduled to arrive on May 28, 2027, set five years after the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. It was announced during Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo as an entirely new adventure with all-new characters, exploring a time period never before explored on screen. Levy has stressed that it is not a prequel and not a sequel, but a new adventure that stands apart from the main Skywalker saga. Gosling stars as Kade Auberon, described in official book synopses as a rogue with a mysterious past, a former X-wing pilot tasked with escorting his young nephew across the galaxy in a decommissioned starfighter, the G17 Imperial Reaper, billed as the fastest ever built. Flynn Gray plays the nephew, and the cast also includes Amy Adams, Matt Smith, Mia Goth and Aaron Pierre, with Smith and Goth expected to play antagonists.
That standalone promise is both the film’s greatest strength and its greatest gamble. Star Wars returned to cinemas earlier in 2026 with The Mandalorian and Grogu, Jon Favreau’s attempt to carry a streaming-born partnership into theatres for the first time in seven years. Starfighter is the next theatrical step, and it arrives just in time for the franchise’s fiftieth anniversary. It has to earn its audience with a new hero, a new ship and a new corner of the galaxy, and Disney is betting more than 200 million dollars that Gosling and Levy can do exactly that.
Disney’s confidence is visible in the merchandising plan, which is already unusually detailed for a film still months from release. Three children’s books from Penguin Random House starring Kade Auberon are expected on April 20, 2027, more than a month before the film opens: Rumble with the Rock Pirate, a Little Golden Book for ages two to five, Risk and Reward, a storybook for ages three to seven, and Rock Pirate Adventures, a leveled reader for ages five to eight. A colouring book, Art of Coloring: Star Wars: Starfighter, arrives March 23, 2027, with 100 images across 128 pages, alongside Outer Rim Outcasts, a Step 2 reader, a DK Ultimate Sticker Book on May 4 with more than 200 stickers and film photography, a DK Super Readers volume and a 176-page Visual Dictionary from Lucasfilm Story Group veteran Pablo Hidalgo. The trailer’s official online debut, reports suggest, probably will not come until Super Bowl LXI in February, airing on ABC, ESPN and Disney+.
