It took quite a few years, but Matt Smith is finally going to be in a Star Wars movie. According to a report from Deadline, Lucasfilm has cast the Doctor Who and House of the Dragon actor as the villain in Shawn Levy’s Star Wars: Starfighter, alongside Ryan Gosling, who is presumably playing the hero. We have no details on the role yet, so we don’t know if he will be wielding a menacing red lightsaber or not. Mia Goth is also in the film, supposedly in a villainous role as well. We’ll see if this means we’ll get a Matt Smith/Mia Goth Sith duo? Because we’re definitely here for that.
Back in 2018, Lucasfilm cast Smith for an unknown role in The Rise of Skywalker. He described the role as “transformative,” but he ultimately never filmed any scenes. Some fans have speculated that when Palpatine was reenergized by Rey and Ben Solo’s Force bond, he was going to be rejuvenated to a pre-prequel state. Smith would have played that younger Palpatine role. Obviously, by the time of filming, Abrams and company had gone in a different direction. Say what you want about Episode XI, but if you’re going to bring back Ian McDiarmid to play the Emperor, best to use him the whole time. We can’t blame them for not using Matt Smith there.
Star Wars: Starfighter will start principal photography this fall, and will arrive in theaters on May 28, 2027. That year is the 50th anniversary of the release of George Lucas’ original film that started it all. In fact, A New Hope will also get a major re-release theatrically that year. And just a few weeks before Starfighter hits theaters. From the looks of it, 2027 is looking to be a great year for Star Wars on the big screen.
Content shared from nerdist.com.