Star Wars: Starfighter - Tom Cruise Helped Film A Lightsaber Due
· BCPosted in: Lucasfilm, Movies, Star Wars, TV | Tagged: star wars: starfighter
Star Wars: Starfighter – Tom Cruise Helped Film A Lightsaber Due
Director Shawn Levy explains how Tom Cruise visited the Star Wars: Starfighter set and ended up helping film a lightsaber duel in water.
Published Thu, 08 Jan 2026 16:58:04 -0600
by Kaitlyn Booth
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Article Summary
- Tom Cruise visited the Star Wars: Starfighter set and helped film a lightsaber duel scene in water.
- Director Shawn Levy shared that Cruise operated a camera during filming, adding excitement to the production.
- Star Wars: Starfighter is the franchise's big return to theaters following The Rise of Skywalker hiatus.
- Shawn Levy directs with Ryan Gosling starring, and the film is slated for theatrical release in May 2027.
It seems that several big-name people within the industry went to the set of Shawn Levy's Star Wars: Starfighter when it was filming this year. That isn't that surprising, considering the impact that Star Wars has had on so many people, and Starfighter is the second big-screen return for Star Wars. It will be about six and a half years since a new Star Wars movie was released in theaters since the lukewarm reception of The Rise of Skywalker.
It also might just be bad timing for the series, which was already planning to make the jump to streaming before the pandemic, and any plans Lucasfilm had to have a balance of streaming and theatrical releases went out the window. While Starfighter is not the first big-screen Star Wars film since the hiatus, that is going to The Mandalorian and Grogu, it does feel like the expectations for this film are higher.
In a new piece from The New York Times, Levy detailed a moment when Tom Cruise visited the Star Wars: Starfighter set, arriving "landing his helicopter on set as the crew piped in the Mission: Impossible theme over the loudspeakers." Cruise was reportedly there to watch, but Levy set up a scene that involved a lightsaber duel in water.
Levy says he asked Cruise to jump behind the camera as a joke, but you shouldn't provoke Tom Cruise to do anything literally because he'll probably do it just because. And get behind the camera he did, standing in water, "holding a camera like a pro." Levy went on to say, "Last week Steven Spielberg was here. And now Tom Cruise is wielding a camera, ruining his very nice shoes. … Now, when you see the movie, you'll know that part of it was shot by Tom. I mean, how cool is that?" Pretty cool indeed, Shawn.
Star Wars: Starfighter Went From 0-100 At Lightspeed
The Mandalorian & Grogu will be the official return to a galaxy far, far away on the big screen, but reports about a film from Shawn Levy began in November 2022. Everyone thought that the film seemed like one that wouldn't get much traction for a while since Levy had other projects to work on, but then Ryan Gosling got involved. His [potential at the time] involvement following the massive success of the Barbie meant that Levy's project went from "eventually" to "right now."
That involvement was first teased back in January 2025, but no one confirmed anything, and it seemed they were waiting until Celebration in April 2025, which isn't a surprise. On the stage in front of a bunch of hopefully not-too-jetlagged fans, it was announced that Levy's project would be titled Star Wars: Starfighter. They also confirmed that Gosling had been cast and that the film had been given a prime-time release date of May 28, 2027.
In a press release sent out by Disney, we also got some very vague story details. The release described the film as "a standalone adventure taking place approximately five years after the events of 2019's Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker. … [Star Wars: Starfighter] is an entirely new adventure featuring all-new characters set in a period of time that has not been explored on screen yet." The release also confirmed that production will begin in fall 2025, which makes sense for a May 2027 release date and how much post-production a massive film like this needs. It was reported that Mia Goth had joined the cast in early June. In early August, it was reported that Matt Smith had joined the cast.
Star Wars: Starfighter stars Ryan Gosling, Flynn Gray, Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman, Daniel Ings, and Amy Adams. It is directed by Shawn Levy and produced by Levy and Kathleen Kennedy. The executive producers are Ryan Gosling, Dan Levine, Mary McLaglen, and Josh McLaglen. The script is by Jonathan Tropper.
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