Los Angeles, April 18 : Actor Ryan Gosling will lead a new 'Star Wars' installment, titled 'Star Wars: Starfighter,' with Shawn Levy directing it.

Production banner Lucasfilm confirmed the news. The film is set for a fall production start and Disney has set a theatrical release date of May 28, 2027, reports variety.com.

Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and chief creative officer Dave Filoni officially unveiled plans for 'Starfighter' at the banner's annual Star Wars Celebration event in Tokyo.

According to variety.com, Jonathan Tropper has written the screenplay for the film. Tropper has written prior features for Levy and is the creator of the Apple TV+ series 'Your Friends & Neighbors.'

Gosling and Levy appeared at the livestreamed Star Wars Celebration to further tease the project, with Gosling wearing a cap reading, 'Never tell me the odds.'

'Being here and seeing all of you more inspiring to do it. There's so much creativity and imagination in this room and there's so much love. It's such a great reminder of how much movies can mean to us, specifically how much these movies mean to us,' Gosling told the screaming audience at the end of the presentation.

'The force is a mysterious thing, but, as I'm here, the force is the fans. All we can hope for is, 'May the fans be with us.''

'We're fans too,' Levy said.

'There's obviously a relationship between these stories and the audience, but we've spent our lives in that audience. We know how meaningful it is.'

The standalone, which focuses on new characters in the 'Star Wars' universe, is set roughly five years after the events of 'Star Wars: Episode IX ' The Rise of Skywalker,' which concluded the Skywalker saga and currently stands as the final feature chronologically on the 'Star Wars' timeline. No other casting details were announced.

Gosling was last seen in the action-heavy romcom 'The Fall Guy,' released in May 2024. 'Starfighter' is a new leap for the typically franchise-averse actor.

'Starfighter' will be released just over a year after the next 'Star Wars' theatrical feature, 'The Mandalorian & Grogu.' It will mark the first 'Star Wars' feature since 'The Rise of Skywalker' debuted in December 2019.

/IANS