Ryan Gosling leads Star Wars: Starfighter, a fresh post-Skywalker film. Releasing May 2027, with new heroes, new worlds, and no legacy reboots.
Star Wars new movie production starts in August 2025, first look of Ryan Gosling at Star Wars: Starfighter has sent shockwaves through the fandom, that visual represents a clean break from the past and a leap into unexplored space. Filmmaker Shawn Levy also confirmed at EW that the Film franchise continues but not with a prequel or sequel. It’s entirely a fresh chapter of Star Wars that is set in a period of time that we haven’t explored yet.
It is set to hit theatres in May 2027, the first big-screen Star Wars film since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. The storyline is kept a secret while the buzz is circling around the fans but it’s not tied to Skywalker era.
Levy stated that it’s not a prequel or sequel but a refreshing story, describing ‘the profound sense of excitement and honor as we begin production on Star Wars: Starfighter.’ He realizes about the fact how characters and cinematic moments can live with us forever. To join this storytelling galaxy with such brilliant collaborators on screen and off, is the thrill of a lifetime.”
Gosling is showing that same energy with what the filmmakers said, “The script is good, It has such a great story with great and original characters.”
He pointed out the point from the original characters, there is no connection to old characters including Han, Leia or Luke. This new chapter of Star Wars: Starfighter will take to another universe, creating a new spark in the global franchise.
The first look reveals Gosling (in a leading role) and his nephew Gray dressed in rugged, middle of a sea hanged around somewhere in the universe.
They are expecting to join other cast members including Amy Adams, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Matt Smith, Simon Bird, and Jamael Westman.
There is no indication that Ryan Gosling is playing any legacy character or Han Solo. From the Levy statement it is clear that this Star War: Starfighter comes with new faces, new story.
But the speculation made from Han Solo’s legendary dialogue “Never tell me the odds.” Which maybe let the fans get confused. While it’s just Gosling’s hat with this dialogue written on it.
The visual of the rogue-ish look is echoing Solo’s spirit but that’s about the tone, not identity. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy also confirmed that it can’t happen, “we can’t do that”, making it abundantly clear.
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Starfighter isn’t trying to relive the past. It’s carving out a future. Gosling as lead star making it possible to drive both his and Star Wars fans crazy. Lucasfilm is focused on the post-Skywalker era which gives the franchise a fresh start with original characters and new worlds.
Get ready for the new chapter of Star Wars: Starfighter comes May 2027. The long-awaited film series heated the fans’ excitement with its first look. It represents the storyline moved on to the next chapter — no strings attached to Skywalker saga
Discover the the story, cast, themes and awards of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and find out how the Cliff Booth sequel widens Tarantino’s nostalgic world.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is a masterpiece of Quentin Tarantino which wraps up with a warm, sun-kissed love letter to the end of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Mixing true history with invention, the 2019 movie about friendship, waning fame and a shifting business is set against the backdrop of 1969 and the Tate murders. With its razor-sharp dialogue, iconic soundtrack and Tarantino’s most personal storytelling, it’s nostalgic and hypnotic — and with Cliff Booth making a comeback on Netflix in 2026, this cinematic universe is just expanding.
At its core “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” is a dramedy with historical elements and a dash of Tarantino’s style of revisionist history. The relative core tensions are the bittersweet decline of stardom, the allure (and dangers) of the counter-culture movement, and the power of camaraderie.
The setting is unmistakably Los Angeles, 1969, and that cataclysmic moment in culture is brilliantly conveyed ultimately not just through detailed period detail. From the classic cars to the classic clothes to the iconic Hollywood Hills — it’s a visual feast.
There was only one name that could be leading this offbeat vision: Quentin Tarantino. He wrote and directed the original screenplay and is an extraordinary storyteller.
Robert Richardson, a long-time Tarantino collaborator, shot the film’s gorgeous cinematography which perfectly captured the golden-hued era.
Barbara Ling’s production design and Arianne Phillips’ costume design transport us further into the world of the late 60s.
The story focuses on Rick’s destructive life and his struggles, in the year 1969 Los Angeles. There’s also his longtime pal and stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) — a disarming yet enigmatic war vet and the bangers and bangettes, among them his crony Max Cherry (Willem Dafoe). Two intersections in their lives are the shadow of the Manson Family and Rick’s neighbour, Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie).
The film soars in its weaving of their three tales, building to a cathartic and unforeseeable final act that re-imagines a historical tragedy. The slow burn lets us take in the atmosphere and character dynamics before a relentless finish.
Popular cast that played wonderful characters in the film:
Among the plethora of famous names, there are Al Pacino, Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern, Emile Hirsch, Timothy Olyphant, Luke Perry, Margaret Qualley and many, many more actors of renown to be found in roles of significance, and it is not even close to just the primary three.
Watching both wonderful actors DiCaprio and Pitt together on their best performances is amazing. That’s what this movie is – their chemistry. Tarantino’s unique, nonlinear form of storytelling (with a few pop culture references), is a great, entertaining journey.
The soundtrack is tightly curated to evoke the feel of nostalgia that the film has at the center of it, and is overflowing with 60’s music, and practically narrates the story of one of the characters.
Production was mostly day for night, and indoor for outdoor in situ among the urban sprawls of Los Angeles, with several famous sites redressed or employed. From the outside of the Hollywood Boulevard stores to the classic cars and trucks twenty-six block Hollywood re-creation of 1969 is mesmerizing. The producers genuinely did go all out to make the viewers feel as though they were seeing something that was truly from the past.
The 2026 follow-up (The Adventures of Cliff Booth) keeps this pedigree intact but with a twist. Though it is written by Tarantino and produced by his long-time partners at Heyday Films, it is directed by David Fincher. News is a hefty $200 million budget, much of that used to recreate the gritty, neon-drenched aesthetic of ’70s L.A.
Due to its violence, language and drug use, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood received an R rating in the US. It was rated R (18+) by the Commission. This fits right into the pattern of Tarantino’s filmography which is always populated by films which bend the rules.
Film’s authenticity to the period, direction, and performances get critical acclaim. While its slow burn is felt by some viewers but still captivated by the unique combination of humor, drama and suspense.
It was well-reviewed, successful at the box office, and won a number of awards, among them the Academy Awards for Best Production Design and Best Supporting Actor (Brad Pitt).
For the sequel, the hype is at an all-time high due to the Fincher-Tarantino-Pitt “holy trinity” of talent.
The initial teaser for The Adventures of Cliff Booth made an unexpected appearance at Super Bowl LX Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (February 2026).
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Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is more than a film — it’s an experience. It’s nostalgia, reinvention, friendship, loss and love of cinema, all wrapped up in the unmistakable style of Tarantino. With its iconic performances, its hazy 1969 backdrop and its daring rewriting of history, it remains one of the most emotionally visceral chapters in Tarantino’s career. And with The Adventures of Cliff Booth on the horizon, this universe isn’t ending — it’s evolving.
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Find out why the 2014 Sony hack resulted in the cancellation of Drew Goddard's Sinister Six and ended the possibilities for future Spider-Man spinoff films.
There is a strange kind of sadness in learning that films once existed which never did. Not the kind of ones that died in development hell after years upon years of false starts, or the ones that crashed under the weight of their own ambition but the ones that were this close to actually happening. The ones where the script was written, the director was hired, the studio was on board, and then something completely beyond the realm of filmmaking blew them out practically.
Drew Goddard’s Sinister Six movie has long been one of those ghost projects. And until very lately, the complete explanation as to why this soaring Spider-Man spin-off never took flight was enveloped in the type of mystery that inspires internet speculation. Bad test screenings? Creative differences? The complex Sony/Marvel rights dance?
The reality, as Goddard recently disclosed, was much more dramatic – and far more mundane in its corporate callousness. It was killed by a cyberattack. Specifically, the notorious Sony hack of 2014, a breach that reverberated throughout Hollywood and, as it turns out, right into Goddard’s office window.
To grasp what we lost, you need to know who Drew Goddard was in 2014. This wasn’t some studio hack getting handed a franchise because he knew how to meet deadlines. Drew Goddard became famous for his hard work and creative talent as a writer with real genre cred. He maintained his directing work successful with The Cabin in the Woods, and many others like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Lost, and Alias.
He was a writer-director who knew mythology, played fan service and actual emotional stakes, and had a bit of a gift for telling stories about ensembles. In other words, he was the ideal man for Sinister Six — Spider-Man’s most infamous group of villains, a revolving door of baddies who have been teaming up to take down the web-slinger since 1964.
The six legendary storyline line-up including Doctor Octopus, Electro, Sandman, Mysterio, Vulture and Kraven the Hunter are the, changes depending on the era you’re reading but Sinister Six was a nod to comic book readers. This ultra-high-concept crossover makes studio execs’ heads spin in the post-“Avengers” era, where shared universes are the Zenith of Franchise Filmmaking.
Sony, which owns the rights to the film version of Spider-Man and was eager to construct its own cinematic universe akin to Marvel’s, revealed plans for a Sinister Six movie in 2013. Goddard was set to write and direct. The project was developed as a spin-off of the Andrew Garfield-led The Amazing Spider-Man series, with the second film in particular establishing the villain team-up. Remember that shot of the man in the hat who mysteriously walks by the Vulture’s wings and Doctor Octopus’s tentacles? That was supposed to be the connective tissue leading to Goddard’s film.
Everything was moving forward. The script was being written but there was a breach by ‘Guardians of Peace’ on Sony’s computer systems and wreaked havoc on 24 Nov, 2014 that jeopardized Sinister-Six that were in Pre-Production Phase.
Goddard’s recent comments to Variety describe a scenario that is somewhat cinematic in its surreal intensity.
“I had a really big Spider- Man movie that was sort of Sinister Six-based that I had planned, but none of that went through because of the Sony hack, My office was right there on the lot, so I watched it all happen — the FBI storming in and helicopters hovering over the studio. It was bizarre.” —he said.
Just be in that office. You are someone who can shape the entire storyline, character development and make absolute narrative arcs. Your biggest professional dream is so close you can taste it— you’re going to make a Spider-Man movie, you’re going to bring these iconic villains to life, you’re going to leave your mark on one of pop culture’s most enduring mythologies. Then you look outside and see feds running onto the studio lot with helicopters overhead like it’s the climax of an action movie.
But this isn’t a movie. This is real life, and the film studio that should have been guiding your movie out into the world is instead scrambling for survival.
The hack on Sony was unparalleled in humiliation and scale. The attackers, who were later attributed to North Korea (although that is disputed), released a trove of sensitive emails, employee social security numbers, unreleased films and business documents. Private correspondence among studio executives was made public. Comp s and salary data leaked online. Hollywood’s deal-making was exposed to the world, warts and all.
For Sony, the problem wasn’t merely technical—a full-blown crisis was under way. The leadership was rattled, and Amy Pascal ultimately resigned from Sony Pictures Entertainment. It cost a lot of money for close coordination with the main Spider-Man franchise and long-term strategic planning might have been an easy casualty.
What makes the Sinister Six cancellation particularly tragic is that it wasn’t just one movie dying – it was the collapse of a whole interconnected universe before it got off the ground. Sony had big plans for its Spider-Man properties beyond the core series. In addition to Sinister Six, there was the notion of a Venom movie (which eventually came to pass, years later, separated from the Spider-Man narrative) and other offshoots to keep the franchise rolling even when not telling a Peter Parker story.
The hack did more than kill Goddard’s film, it changed the way Sony handled the Spider-Man property. The studio, reeling and desperate, ultimately made the unprecedented deal with Marvel Studios that brought Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with Captain America: Civil War. Tom Holland replaced Andrew Garfield. The “Amazing Spider-Man” timeline was right out.
Goddard’s Sinister Six was of a particular time—a time when Sony was attempting to create its own thing, its own line that could exist without the crutch of Marvel. The hack shattered that moment, and when the dust cleared, the terrain had shifted so dramatically that there was no turning back.
“I was sad about it, but there was literally nothing I could do to change the course of events,” —Goddard said.
There’s a hint of resignation in that—that at times you are simply swept up in something bigger than yourself, no matter how talented, prepared, or dedicated you are to that cause. Her narrative, casting, and look are in the director’s hands. They have no say in international cyberwarfare, which is above them.
To be sure, the compelling question is: what would Goddard’s Sinister Six be? We do know a few things from a number of interviews and leaks over the years. Goddard called the picture a “big movie,” and that it would be a heist movie with a large budget and scope. The filmmaker had previously said that he wanted to make something different from the typical superhero movie template, where the villains are the lead characters as opposed to being social menaces for Spider-Man.
There are a few things we can reasonably deduce about Goddard’s take on The Cabin in the Woods from both his earlier work on The Cabin in the Woods and his subsequent success with Daredevil (he is the creator of the Netflix series and wrote its first two episodes). Entirely too much pick-me-up energy here to realistically expect he wouldn’t enjoy all these characters genuinely weird powers and motivations, tragic pasts and grand delusions. A Goddard Sinister Six could have looked, structurally, punched up creatively and humorously in weird ways, and emotionally moving under the spectacle.
Would it have been good? We’ll never find out. But the lineage implied it would have been, at least, interesting— which is more than can be said for a lot of the superhero films that do get made.
Casting is also an issue. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 had already announced Dane DeHaan already casted as Harry Osborn/Green Goblin and Jamie Foxx as Electro for the Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie. The film teased Vulture’s wings and Doctor Octopus’s tentacles. Goddard’s film presumably would have featured some elements of these performers, and possibly included new individuals to complete the group. It’s a cast that, looking back, seems almost unbelievably packed with talent.
Post Sinister Six debacle, and Drew Goddard didn’t disappear on the contrary, he has been busier than ever. He also penned Ridley Scott’s film version of Andy Weir’s best-selling novel The Martian, which was a financial and critical success and won him a nomination for an Academy Award for Adapted Screenplay.
Michael Schur and he also co-executive produces The Good Place, from which he is co-creator. His own smart, philosophical comedic voice is overt.
After the cult success of his neo-noir Bad Times at the El Royale, he’s now heading back into mind-bending sci-fi for Project Hail Mary. The new adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel will star Ryan Gosling in a blend of intriguing personas and tales that evolve imagination, a concoction that fans of both Goddard and Weir will undoubtedly look forward to.
The plot revolves around an amnesiac astronaut who might be the last best chance for humanity, and it’s a return to the kind of audacious, imaginative sci-fi moviemaking that some think Hollywood has strayed from in recent years.
In a way, it’s appropriate that Goddard has returned to big-screen spectacle via an entirely different route. Sinister Six door closed, but other doors opened. That’s the nature of the business, especially for a guy with Goddard’s range and name.
But the Spider-Man movie stands as a singular pet project “what if” in his filmography—and testament to how fleeting even the most high-potential productions can be.
“It’s probably better than them not liking the script,” said Drew Goddard
Attempting to find a small glimmer of a silver lining in the situation. In a strange way, it softened the blow — not because the project crumbled for reasons entirely outside his control and because no one believed in his vision.
Since the demise of the Sinister Six, we’ve had other tries for villain-centric superhero narratives. Suicide Squad (in its various versions) established that people would come to see villain team-ups, for bad guy team-ups, no matter how mixed the reaction was. Sony ended up making their Venom movies, which have been money-makers despite the meh critical responses. The animated Spider-Verse films have proven that Spider-Man adjacent properties can truly transcend when given to the right creative teams.
Best of all, Spider-Man’s rogue gallery has materialized in some shape or form throughout the MCU. Michael Keaton’s Vulture from Homecoming. Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio in Far From Home. The multiverse-bending No Way Home even brought back previous cinematic iterations of villains, including Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus and Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin, as a sort of cosmic analog for all the team-ups we never got to see in standalone films.
These, however, are not Goddard’s Sinister Six. None of them have the particular auteurist DNA of a filmmaker with something to prove and a distinctive way of doing so.
The 2014 Sony hack has been all but forgotten by the public, superseded by more recent scandals and crises. The movie business, as ever, has moved on. But for enthusiasts who track such things, who care about where commerce meets creativity, who know that films are the products of particular moments and particular people, the tale of Drew Goddard’s cancelled Spider-Man movie still makes for a compelling case study.
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Acclaimed directors don’t always get to helm their passion projects. Sometimes, it’s not the quality of the script, or the enthusiasm of the fans — it’s whether a studio’s email servers are hacked by a particularly vengeful group of cyberterrorists.
Drew Goddard seems to have made peace with it. He has found his own way, establishing a very good career telling the sorts of stories that genuinely interest him without having to twist his arm to take on big franchise expectations. Up until now, it is for him in 2014, when helicopters buzzed over the Sony lot and his Spider-Man dreams evaporated like so many deleted files, that he has to remind himself when he looks out the window, now from whatever office he is occupying.
The Sinister Six will eventually pop up in a movie, probably. Hollywood has an insatiable appetite for known IP, and the concept is just too tempting to be allowed to languish for ever. But it will not be Goddard’s version. It won’t be the movie that almost was, the one that died not of creative failure but of corporate chaos.
And that’s the true tragedy not only that we never got to see a film but the fact that it was a particular vision and a certain way of looking at these characters through the lens of a director who really got them. In the age of algorithm-based content and safe bets, the loss of something risky and personal is keenly felt.
Drew Goddard’s Sinister Six now lives only on hard drives and in memories, in the “what if” conversations of fans and the odd wistful interview. It is a ghost movie, lurking at the edges of superhero cinema history, a reminder that even in the era of the never-ending franchise, there are stories that are stubbornly, eternally untold.
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