Amy Adams joins cast of Star Wars: Starfighter

Amy Adams has joined the cast of Star Wars: Starfighter.

The 51-year-old actress is set to star alongside the likes of Aaron Pierre, Flynn Gray, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman and Daniel Ings in the next Star Wars movie.

The much-anticipated film is being directed by Shawn Levy - who helmed 2024's Deadpool and Wolverine - while Ryan Gosling has already been announced as a cast member.

The director has revealed that he feels honored to be overseeing the project.

Shawn, 57, said in a statement: "I feel a profound sense of excitement and honor as we begin production on Star Wars: Starfighter.

"From the day Kathy Kennedy called me up, inviting me to develop an original adventure in this incredible Star Wars galaxy, this experience has been a dream come true, creatively and personally."

Shawn also described helming a Star Wars movie as the "thrill of a lifetime".

He said: "Star Wars’ shaped my sense of what story can do, how characters and cinematic moments can live with us forever. To join this storytelling galaxy with such brilliant collaborators onscreen and off, is the thrill of a lifetime."

Production work on the project - which will also star Matt Smith and Mia Goth - has actually already begun in the UK.

Lucasfilm has released a black-and-white image of Ryan and Flynn on set. The studio has also revealed that Star Wars: Starfighter will be "an entirely original story set in a period of time never before explored in Star Wars".

Shawn has been working on the movie with Lucasfilm since 2022 and last year, the director confirmed that he was not planning to connect his work to any other films or TV shows in the long-running franchise.

Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, he said: "I'll say that the experience of crafting this story has forced me to think about that question. Because there's only so many times that Star Wars movies can revisit the same section of the timeline, and so it's really forced me, because I don't want to do a Star Wars movie that is redundant to others, nor am I interested in doing one that has to serve another movie."

The filmmaker added that he was making the flick with "tone and characters" at the forefront.

He said: "I really wanted to craft something that felt organic to me, both in tone and characters, so I think that there is certainly the Force and a connection to something bigger than our individual selves.

"And the way that that can make us powerful, those themes, combined with visual delight and wish fulfilment, that's Star Wars to me."