Ryan Gosling's 'Star Wars: Starfighter' Debuts First Footage at D23 — a Pilot From the Wrong Side of the Galaxy

Disney unveiled the first footage from Star Wars: Starfighter at D23, introducing Ryan Gosling's pilot Kade Auberon in Shawn Levy's standalone film set after The Rise of Skywalker.

Disney's D23 Expo delivered its biggest Star Wars reveal in years Friday night, debuting the first footage from "Star Wars: Starfighter" — the Shawn Levy-directed film that hands Ryan Gosling the cockpit of a whole new corner of the galaxy.

Gosling plays Kade Auberon, introduced in the clip when a young mechanic (newcomer Flynn Gray) uncovers a hidden ship and is met with the warning, "Didn't I tell you not to touch anything?" The vessel is a decommissioned G17 — "the fastest starfighter ever built," a ship whose fate, Gosling told the crowd, is intertwined with his character, "a guy from the wrong side of the galaxy."

Levy opened by trolling his star with a vintage "Mickey Mouse Club" clip of a teenage Gosling, then framed the film as Star Wars "in a timeline never explored" — a stand-alone story set after 2019's "The Rise of Skywalker," free of the Skywalker saga. The screenplay is by Jonathan Tropper, with a deep supporting cast that includes Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre and Amy Adams.

"Starfighter" opens May 28, 2027 — Memorial Day weekend, timed to the 50th anniversary of the original Star Wars. It's the first of two Gosling-Levy team-ups; a Ghost Rider film follows in 2028.

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter | Deadline | Nerdist