Star Wars: Starfighter Cost $226.5M to Shoot. That's a Lot of Starfighter.
Fastest starfighter ever built. Priciest, too.
Star Wars: Starfighter is now the most expensive Star Wars movie ever made, at least so far. Shawn Levy's film had cost $226.5 million by the time filming wrapped, according to a Forbes report on UK filings shared by Jedi News. That's more than The Force Awakens had spent at the same point in its production.
The numbers come from Blue Mist Productions, the UK production company created specifically to make the film, and its financial statements cover spending through January 31, while the movie was shooting at Pinewood Studios and on location in Sardinia, Italy.
Did Starfighter really cost that much?
Sort of. The UK pays back part of what big productions spend there through its Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit, and Starfighter received $51.5 million in return. That brings its net cost down to about $175 million (Jedi News).
The final number will almost certainly climb from here, since these filings only cover principal photography and additional visual effects work is still happening in London. Marketing isn't included either (and Star Wars movies don't advertise themselves cheaply).
Why does the Starfighter budget matter?
Starfighter carries a lot of weight for Lucasfilm. The Mandalorian and Grogu brought Star Wars back to theaters this year, but it leaned on characters fans already loved from TV. Starfighter is a standalone story set about five years after The Rise of Skywalker, with a brand new hero at the center.
Ryan Gosling plays Kade Auberon, who he described at D23 as "a guy from the wrong side of the galaxy, whose fate is intertwined with the fastest starfighter ever built" (StarWars.com). Flynn Gray, Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre and Amy Adams round out the cast.
A bigger budget also raises the bar for what counts as a box office success. My read is that Lucasfilm is betting this is the movie that gets general audiences back in theaters for Star Wars, and the spending suggests it's swinging big.
When does Star Wars: Starfighter come out?
Starfighter hits theaters on May 28, 2027. Levy has pointed out that it opens on the same weekend the original Star Wars did 50 years earlier. If you want to go deeper, we ranked the biggest Starfighter fan theories right here.
More Star Wars news is right here.
Header image of Ryan Gosling and Shawn Levy at D23 2026 is from StarWars.com (Disney and Lucasfilm).
