Star Wars: Starfighter represents a bold new dawn for the galaxy far, far away. Whereas Star Wars‘ other upcoming cinematic release, The Mandalorian & Grogu, will continue a story that began on the pair’s Disney+ series, Starfighter promises an entirely new chapter set after 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. Predictably, plot details remain hard to come by. We only have the impressive list of names involved, which includes Ryan Gosling, Amy Adams, Mia Goth and Matt Smith.
Smith’s casting is especially interesting. The Doctor Who and House of the Dragon star was previously attached to Star Wars 9 (before it was known as The Rise of Skywalker). His character was cut prior to filming and Smith has no presence whatsoever in the finished edit. While disappointing at the time, the cloud of negativity that surrounds the sequel trilogy’s final chapter suggests he dodged a bullet.
After losing out in 2019, Matt Smith now has another opportunity to make his mark on George Lucas’ franchise, and his previous connection means Star Wars: Starfighter could do the funniest thing with his character.
Starfighter Paying Off Those Star Wars 9 Rumors Would Be An Unexpected Twist
Matt Smith in House of the Dragon
Matt Smith has never explicitly revealed which character he was supposed to portray in Star Wars 9, but his role was touted as pivotal to the story. Speaking on HappySadConfused, Smith himself described the part as “transformative,” which feeds into the most prominent rumor at the time. According to said rumor, the former Eleventh Doctor would have portrayed a younger, rejuvenated Emperor Palpatine, either the result of a successful cloning experiment or the original, wrinklier Palpatine after refreshing himself by draining Rey and Kylo Ren’s Force dyad.
The overwhelming likelihood is that Smith’s Star Wars: Starfighter character will be a brand-new individual with no connection whatsoever to The Rise of Skywalker. But… Given his prior involvement with the franchise, it’s impossible not to at least entertain the notion that Starfighter will see Matt Smith playing a younger Palpatine.
It would be an amusingly bold move if true. Palpatine, of course, found himself indoctrinated into memedom after The Rise of Skywalker, as fans lambasted the lazy “somehow” explanation behind his return. Bringing Palpatine back from the dead again would feel like Jedi Master-level trolling from Shawn Levy and co.
Weirdly, the idea isn’t quite as farfetched as it appears at first glance.
For one thing, Matt Smith has already been reported as having a villainous role in Star Wars: Starfighter. Secondly, Smith refused to rule out revisiting his cut character from The Rise of Skywalker. In that same HappySadConfused interview from 2021, Smith acknowledged, “Maybe I can come back, you never know. To come back as…[cuts off to avoid revealing character].” Just as he predicted, Smith is indeed back in the Star Wars universe a few years later. Is he playing the same character too?
Palpatine’s presence would make sense within the context of Star Wars: Starfighter‘s rumored story (via John Rocha). According to unconfirmed reports, Starfighter‘s main child character, played by Flynn Gray, is a Force-sensitive youngster being protected by Ryan Gosling’s protagonist.
If Star Wars: Starfighter is about villains chasing down Force-sensitive children, it’s hard not to think of Palpatine. Abducting younglings was his whole M.O. during the Clone Wars, with “Project Harvester” specifically geared toward that goal.
Hold On, Could Matt Smith Playing Young Palpatine In Star Wars: Starfighter Actually Work?
After the furor surrounding his survival in The Rise of Skywalker, any sort of Palpatine clone or rejuvenated Palpatine in Star Wars: Starfighter would be a laughable development. If Star Wars couldn’t get away with it in 2019, it certainly won’t get away with it in 2027.
But hokey sith science doesn’t need to be the reason Palpatine is younger in Star Wars: Starfighter.
Instead, Star Wars: Starfighter could incorporate a flashback timeline set before The Phantom Menace. These scenes could explain why Flynn Gray’s character in the present is so valuable to Starfighter‘s villains, with the sequences in the past possibly revealing how the youngster’s heritage is of some significance. Maybe the younger Palpatine identified a specific bloodline in the Force, and now his successors in the present (Mia Goth?) are attempting to fulfill the plan several generations later.
Palpatine flashbacks would be infinitely more enjoyable than Star Wars: Starfighter revealing the villain survived his duel with Rey. The past timeline wouldn’t feel especially different from Palpatine’s role in Star Wars: The Clone Wars – filling in the blanks of his stint as Star Wars‘ main villain rather than trying to eke it out. Witnessing more of Palpatine’s backstory and early schemes would certainly be fascinating, since he’s already Darth Sidious by the time The Phantom Menace begins.
The danger of Star Wars: Starfighter introducing brand-new dark side villains is that doing so can easily open a can of worms. Just look at the Knights of Ren, which the Star Wars sequel trilogy never satisfyingly explained or properly utilized. If Starfighter can link its villains to a plan Palpatine set in motion before becoming Naboo’s senator, these new enemies would be sufficiently anchored to the existing story to avoid feeling like a rug-pull.
Sources: HappySadConfused, John Rocha
Release Date
May 28, 2027
Director
Shawn Levy
