Star Wars: Starfighter With Ryan Gosling Becomes Most Expensive Film in the Franchise

Disney and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: Starfighter doesn’t reach theaters until May 27, but it is already making headlines. Forbes reports that the sci-fi film had racked up $226.5 million in costs by the time filming wrapped.

Unless you count Ahsoka season 2, Star Wars productions tend to cost a lot, even the TV shows. Starfighter appears to go further than most. Its spending is higher than what Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) had reached at the same stage. In 2023, that film was revealed to be the most expensive movie ever made. Colin Trevorrow’s 2022 film Jurassic World Dominion has since taken that title.

Could Starfighter become the most expensive film ever?

It could, depending on how much work goes into post-production. That is the stage when visual effects (VFX) work ramps up, and a Star Wars film will likely need plenty of it for aliens, possible starfighter battles and planetscapes. If the spending keeps climbing, Starfighter could even pass Dominion.

Disney’s latest big-screen release, The Mandalorian and Grogu, was visually underwhelming. That makes it reasonable to expect Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to push hard on Starfighter, and a push like that could make post-production extremely expensive.

The Mandalorian and Grogu was a box office failure. It had the worst opening weekend of any Star Wars film. Its $345.6 million total is the lowest of any Disney Star Wars film. Lucasfilm and Disney have a lot to prove to audiences, so extra investment in Starfighter‘s quality may be worth it to them.

There is a caveat on costs for both Starfighter and The Force Awakens. Both films shot at Pinewood Studios in the UK, so both benefited from the UK government’s Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit. HMRC manages the credit and the BFI certifies productions for it. In simple terms, it gives productions a cash reimbursement of up to 25.5% of what they spend in the country. That gives producers more budgetary flexibility, though whether it pays off in Starfighter‘s quality remains to be seen.

Shawn Levy, known for Deadpool & Wolverine, directs Starfighter. The story is set five years after The Rise of Skywalker. It follows Kade Auberon (Ryan Gosling), a cynical character with a checkered but mysterious past. Gosling is joined by Flynn Gray, Matt Smith, Mia Goth and Amy Adams.

Related reading: The next Star Wars movie lands a stacked cast to co-star with Ryan Gosling

Source: Polygon