STAR WARS: STARFIGHTER Was Inspired by Francis Ford Coppola’s THE OUTSIDERS

Of all the movies you might expect to influence a new Star Wars adventure, The Outsiders probably isn’t the first one that comes to mind. Yet Francis Ford Coppola’s gritty coming of age classic became an important creative reference for director Shawn Levy and star Ryan Gosling while developing Star Wars: Starfighter.

I’ve seen a little footage from Starfighter, and while Lucasfilm is still keeping much of the story under wraps, we know Gosling plays Kade Auberon, the owner of a decommissioned Imperial Starfighter that he claims is the fastest ever.

Kade’s journey will also involve a young character played by Flynn Gray, and their relationship appears to be a major part of the story.

While talking to Fandango in what Levy says is his first interview for the film, the director revealed that he and Gosling found some unexpected inspiration in The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton’s classic 1967 novel and Coppola’s 1983 film adaptation.

The Outsiders follows teenagers divided by class, particularly the working-class Greasers and wealthy Socs, and explores friendship, loyalty, identity, violence, and young people trying to find their place in a world that has already decided where they belong.

Levy explained how that idea helped shape Starfighter: “The Outsiders, which was both a book and a movie, Gosling and I weirdly connected in and about early on when the script was still evolving.”

“We spoke about how that movie captured something about characters who are… they’re not the privileged ones. They’re from the wrong side of the tracks.

“Our characters in Starfighter are from the wrong side of the galaxy. And it’s about these sort of marginalized outsiders who find each other and have a shot at discovering heroism through their connections.”

“Wrong side of the galaxy” gives us a pretty interesting idea of what Levy is going for here. This doesn’t sound like a story about powerful Jedi, political leaders, or characters sitting comfortably at the center of galactic events.

Instead, Starfighter seems interested in people living on the fringes who get pulled into something much bigger than themselves.

That approach fits Star Wars incredibly well. The franchise has always had room for smugglers, mechanics, farmers, criminals, scavengers, and ordinary people who eventually find themselves facing extraordinary circumstances.

Levy went on to explain that the grounded quality of Coppola’s film was something he wanted to carry into his corner of the Star Wars universe:

“So there was just something kind of blue-collar, working class, grounded and textured and real to The Outsiders that we tried to bring to Star Wars and Starfighter,” the director continued.

“Yes, it’s set in space. It’s high tech. There’s lots of visual effects, but it’s very much grounded in characters and grounded in the stuff of these characters doing the best they can in a chaotic galaxy that hasn’t yet been explored.”

That “chaotic galaxy” is another part of Starfighter that has us curious because the movie is heading into territory the live-action films haven’t explored before.

Starfighter takes place several years after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, pushing the franchise farther into its cinematic future.

The Resistance defeated the First Order, but what happened after that victory remains a massive question. Who stepped in to govern the galaxy? Did anyone manage to restore order? What happens to all the people living outside whatever new system emerged?

If Levy is building a rougher, working-class story around characters trying to survive during an unstable period, that could give Starfighter its own identity and tone while still feeling very much at home in Star Wars.

The Outsiders influence also tells that the relationship between Gosling and Gray’s characters will be far more important than the spaceship they’re flying around in.

Levy specifically talks about marginalized people finding each other and discovering heroism through those connections, so the emotional core of the movie may come from two outsiders becoming an unlikely team.

That’s a cool direction for the film. Massive space battles and badass Starfighters are always welcome, but those things work a lot better when we actually care about the people sitting in the cockpit.

Star Wars: Starfighter hits theaters on May 28, 2027.