Chris McPherson

Published Aug 15, 2026, 12:34 AM EDT

Chris is a Senior News Writer for Collider. He can be found in an IMAX screen, with his eyes watering and his ears bleeding for his own pleasure. He joined the news team in 2022 and accidentally fell upwards into a senior position despite his best efforts.

For reasons unknown, he enjoys analyzing box office receipts, giant sharks, and has become known as the go-to man for all things BoschMission: Impossible and Christopher Nolan in Collider’s news division. Recently, he found himself yeehawing along to the Dutton saga on the Yellowstone Ranch.

He is proficient in sarcasm, wit, Photoshop and working unfeasibly long hours. Amongst his passions sit the likes of the history of the Walt Disney Company, the construction of theme parks, steam trains and binge-watching Gilmore Girls with a coffee that is just hot enough to scald him.

His obsession with the Apple TV+ series Silo is the subject of mockery within the Senior News channel, where his feelings about Taylor Sheridan’s work are enough to make his fellow writers roll their eyes.

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A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away seems to be an overly familiar place for us these days. That’s why, when Star Wars can venture into the unknown, it’s an extremely exciting proposition. The franchise has spent years expanding familiar corners of the galaxy through Disney+ while on the big screen, it’s either Skywalker, Skywalker-adjacent or bust. Until now, it would seem. Ryan Gosling, Shawn Levy and Lucasfilm are finally ready to show us what’s next.

Tonight, exclusively for the audience at D23, the first trailer for Star Wars: Starfighter was unveiled to a raucous and excited crowd, as it gave fans the first real look at Gosling’s interstellar new adventure, and his character Kade Auberon, ahead of its theatrical release on May 28, 2027. Starfighter is an entirely original Star Wars story rather than an adaptation or a sequel to something else, which is why the movie is such a mystery and an exciting prospect for all of us. Gosling described his character as being “from the wrong side of the galaxy whose fate is intertwined with the fastest starfighter ever built.”

Alongside Gosling, the movie stars Flynn Gray, Matt Smith (Doctor Who), Mia Goth (Pearl), Aaron Pierre (Rebel Ridge), Simon Bird (The Inbetweeners), Jamael Westman (The Essex Serpent), Daniel Ings (The Gentlemen), and Amy Adams (Arrival) are among the major names appearing alongside him. Levy directs from a screenplay by Jonathan Tropper.

The teaser showed Kade showing off his starfighter, mixed with shots of work going on to fix it up, dramatic music (of course) and plenty of hero shots of Gosling. It gave off a vibe of Levy’s Real Steel crossed with Star Wars and it feels good to see something new.

Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.

You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.

The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.

You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.

Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.

The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Speaking exclusively with Collider’s Steve Weintraub earlier this year while he was promoting Project Hail Mary, Gosling did his best to say nothing about Starfighter and failed miserably. And who can blame him? He’s in a real life Star War.

“It’s such a great story on its own, and the characters are amazing. The journey is epic. I think that Shawn Levy, he’s got it. He’s got the tone. He’s got the enthusiasm for this. It’s infectious. Everybody involved is just sucked into his love. He’s so passionate about this that he’s really so in his element. It was a beautiful thing to see. It felt like someone who’d been working their whole life to be making this, and I think we all felt like we were a part of something really special. I’m saying too much!”

Star Wars: Starfighter opens in theaters on May 28, 2027.

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Shawn Levy

Jonathan Tropper, George Lucas

Ryan Gosling

Matt Smith

Amy Adams