Despite reports that Shawn Levy's Star Wars: Starfighter will "have a significantly smaller budget" than the previous Disney-era films, it seems Disney and Lucasfilm spent a lot more on the next instalment in the franchise than we had been led to believe.
According to Forbes, Starfighter had cost the studio $226.5 million by the time filming had wrapped at Pinewood Studios, surpassing the sum spent during the same period on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which was believed to be the most expensive movie ever made until 2022's Jurassic World Dominion.
"The filings show that the company spent a massive $226.5 million (£164.9 million) with one of the biggest single costs shown in the filings being the $17.6 million (£12.8 million) paid to the staff who came to a monthly average of 239 people. In contrast, Foodles Production (UK) – the FPC behind The Force Awakens – booked costs of £147.6 million from the outset to 12 days after filming finished. Likewise, Space Bear Industries (UK) – the FPC which made Disney’s second Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi, spent £162.3 million from when it was incorporated to three weeks after filming finished."
However, there is a caveat. Starfighter landed a tax break for filming in the UK that reportedly reached as much as $51.5 million, which would bring the production budget down significantly to around $175 million.
It's still a gamble. Levy is a hot commodity after the huge success of Deadpool and Wolverine, but the underperformance of The Mandalorian and Grogu made it clear that Star Wars simply doesn't have the same drawing power on the big screen that it used to.
Set approximately five years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, Starfighter stars Ryan Gosling as a cynical rogue from the less privileged side of the galaxy who encounters a teenager (Flynn Gray) who may or may not be Force-sensitive.
"With no governing force keeping order in the galaxy, the two are able to take a decommissioned enemy starfighter and embark on an adventure."
The impressive ensemble will also feature Matt Smith (Morbius), Mia Goth (Frankenstein), Aaron Pierre (Lanterns), Simon Bird (The Inbetweeners), Jamael Westman (Hedda), Daniel Ings (Lovesick), and Amy Adams (Man of Steel).
"I feel a profound sense of excitement and honor as we begin production on Star Wars: Starfighter," Levy said in a press release when production began. "From the day Kathy Kennedy called me up, inviting me to develop an original adventure in this incredible Star Wars galaxy, this experience has been a dream come true, creatively and personally."
He added, "Star Wars shaped my sense of what story can do, how characters and cinematic moments can live with us forever. To join this storytelling galaxy with such brilliant collaborators onscreen and off, is the thrill of a lifetime.
The first teaser for Starfighter screened at D23 earlier this year, but has not been officially released.