Star Wars: Starfighter director Shawn Levy explains how film follows in Stranger Things’ footsteps

Shawn Levy wants Star Wars: Starfighter to be “epic and intimate” like Stranger Things.

The 57-year-old filmmaker helms the upcoming Ryan Gosling-starring adventure movie, and Levy - who has served as an executive producer and director for the hit Netflix show - has learned from Stranger Things to “stay rooted in character” on Starfighter.

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Deadpool and Wolverine director said: “If I’ve learned anything on Stranger Things, it’s that you can get intimidated by the scale of franchise expectation. But you will lose your way if that’s your focus.

“I’ve learned the need to stay rooted in character, and themes and relationships on screen.

“Yes, there’s spectacle and scale, just like Stranger Things. And of course, Star Wars and Starfighter has spectacle and scale and adventure at a level I’ve never done in my whole career. But like Stranger Things, it’s also very much anchored in a human scale, character-sized story.

“I think that if I can balance the epic and the intimate the way [show creators Matt and Ross Duffer] have with Stranger Things, I’ll make a movie and an original and new Star Wars adventure that can be really satisfying to fans and audiences.”

Star Wars: Starfighter - which will release in May 2027 - is set five years after 2019’s Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker, and will follow a pilot (Gosling) who is tasked with protecting his Force-sensitive nephew (Flynn Gray) as they are pursued by mysterious foes across the galaxy.

The movie will also star Amy Adams, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman, Daniel Ings and Matt Smith.

Levy previously compared Starfighter to his other projects like Free Guy and Deadpool and Wolverine, calling the sci-fi blockbuster “uniquely intricate” to make due to the freedom he had in crafting its story.

Speaking with Vanity Fair, he said: “Nothing quite prepares you for the unique experience of directing Star Wars. I’ve done ambitious movies with high levels of complexity - certainly things like Free Guy and Deadpool and Wolverine were not chamber pieces.

“So I thought I was used to big-scale complexity and production. But Star Wars is uniquely intricate, because not only are you inheriting a beloved legacy, but in the case of Starfighter, I’ve got this self-imposed but very Lucasfilm-supported mandate of making a new adventure.

“And so every creative decision, it’s all bespoke and new. So it’s the normal number of decisions per day the directors are used to, but probably times 10.”

Levy also said his inner child was “losing his mind” on the set of Starfighter.

He shared: “Every day on set with Star Wars, I’ve got my 10-year-old self next to me.

“I’m sort of inspired and - in the midst of a huge amount of stress - gleeful. Younger me is there every day, and he’s losing his mind with excitement.”