Star Wars will officially launch a brand-new era of the galaxy's timeline in 2027. After the divisive release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, everything changed for the galaxy far, far away. Suddenly, with the debut of Disney+ (and a much-needed theatrical hiatus), there was room to experiment with formats, genres, and characters, giving the franchise a chance to explore underdeveloped eras of the Star Wars timeline, most prominently the New Republic era with The Mandalorian and what would soon come to be known as the wider "Mandoverse."
A few years later, on a much bigger scale, Star Wars unveiled the Star Wars: The High Republic publishing initiative with Charles Soule's Light of the Jedi, a multimedia sub-franchise of books, comics, audio plays, and shows that chronicled the Jedi Order's history roughly 300–100 years before the events of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. The High Republic represented a truly new section of the Star Wars timeline, one that expanded the audience's understanding of the Order's fragility throughout the Star Wars prequel trilogy and shed new light on the Force and the Jedi's place within it.
Now, in 2027, Star Wars is set to launch a wholly new era all over again. Coinciding with the original Star Wars movie's 50th anniversary celebrations, Ryan Gosling and Shawn Levy's standalone adventure, Star Wars: Starfighter, will be the first movie or show to take place after the events of The Rise of Skywalker. While this honor was presumably originally intended for Daisy Ridley's tentatively titled Star Wars: New Jedi Order movie, first announced at Star Wars Celebration 2023, Starfighter will now take the reins instead, reportedly five years after the destruction of the Sith and the First Order.
While the concept of watching Rey rebuild the Jedi Order is an intriguing one, Star Wars: Starfighter is the better choice to establish a new era. Aside from the High Republic, so much of the Star Wars timeline is defined by the Skywalker legacy. Even the New Republic has (understandably) been molded around Luke Skywalker's failed attempt to train a new generation of Jedi, his presence a massive influence on The Mandalorian and even The Book of Boba Fett.
Having the New Jedi Order movie launch this era — already designated as the New Jedi Order era in Star Wars' official timeline — would automatically tie it back to the Skywalker saga, even if it isn't titled "Episode X." Rey has taken on the family name, after all, and plans on honoring what they taught her, even if her Jedi Order looks a little different from Luke's previous endeavor. Star Wars: Starfighter, however, is a standalone adventure, one that can ease audiences into a new period and give them a chance to explore the galaxy without the pressure of Star Wars' history, just as The Mandalorian did in season 1.
The official synopsis for Starfighter promises to establish a "rebuilding galaxy" as Gosling's unnamed pilot protects newcomer Flynn Gray's youngling from mysterious dark threats. Gray's character is seemingly Force-sensitive, potentially setting him up for future appearances in Rey's Jedi Order — should that movie ever make it out of development limbo — but it will be much more interesting to see what this changing galaxy is like from the point of view of relatively ordinary people, rather than those responsible for saving it.
For now, it's more important for Star Wars to build the overall look and atmosphere of this new era, as the galaxy emerges from the shadows of a decades-old, cyclical conflict. There will be a power vacuum, so who's going to try to take over? Which parties are taking advantage of the galaxy's disarray? Are planets working together to recover, or are governments isolating themselves?
Star Wars: Starfighter will set the tone for this new era. The franchise will always be able to return to the Jedi. Star Wars can only benefit from proving once again, much like it did with Andor and the first season of The Mandalorian, that it doesn't need the Jedi to tell a good story. There's so much more to the galaxy, after all. Why not explore it?
Star Wars: Starfighter arrives in cinemas on May 28, 2027.
