Shawn Levy Says Cinematographer Claudio Miranda Wants to “Break New Ground” in ‘Starfighter’
Director Shawn Levy, while at the premiere of Stranger Things’ final season, met with Collider to discuss his upcoming Star Wars film, Starfighter. Reiterating previous sentiments about how his film will focus on new characters in an all-new adventure, Levy also took a moment to praise Top Gun: Maverick and F1 cinematographer Claudio Miranda for what he is bringing to the project. He said:
“Beyond his artistry, which is self-evident in everything from Life of Pi to Benjamin Button. Claudio is — I call him the Professor because he loves the nerdy figuring out of prep. He likes to design camera platforms that don’t exist. He likes to think about lenses and format in ways that are innovative. And so the rigor of his innovative thinking is a huge gift to a Star Wars movie that wants to break some new ground visually and be a visceral kinetic ride, which is the other thing he brings. Claudio, in both Top Gun: Maverick and F1 showed this. His sense of how to put people in the action in a visceral way, not just in an observational way, but a subjective and participatory way, in that cockpit, in that driver’s seat. He does it like no one else does it, and I wanted that superpower for Starfighter.”
Photo Credit: (L to R) Ryan Gosling and Flynn Gray on set for Star Wars: Starfighter. Shot by Ed Miller.
He goes into further detail regarding his mindset when making the film, expanding on his previous statement to Deadline when he said they were halfway through production:
“We’re really trying to sort of take that tone as a North Star every day. My crew, my DP, Claudio Miranda, Gosling is my kind of central collaborator in the lead role. It’s certainly been a dream come true. My 10-year-old self is on set with me every day. In fact, he’s going to catch a flight tonight to go back to the set and keep shooting on Monday. But it’s a huge invigorating opportunity because Lucasfilm has been so encouraging of me doing something new. There’s no pressure to be derivative or limited by an obligation to what came before. There’s just a love of what came before.”
Star Wars: Starfighter will take place around five years after The Rise of Skywalker, which doesn’t necessarily mean it is the next grand saga adventure. Instead, Levy says he’s focused on making something new:
“It is different in that it is an all-new non-sequel, non-prequel adventure. It’s new characters, it’s a new timeline. It inherits legacy themes, but it’s really trying to give Star Wars [fans] — and just movie audiences — something fresh, something new. And with a spirit of play and big-hearted adventure with moments of real levity that, frankly, A New Hope had in a revolutionary way.”
Starfighter, starring Ryan Gosling, Flynn Gray, Mia Goth, Matt Smith, Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, Daniel Ings, Jamael Westman, and Amy Adams, premieres in theaters on May 28, 2027.
In 1977, Rob waited on line with his older sister for Star Wars and he has been experiencing and dreaming about the franchise ever since. A lifelong New Yorker, he is married with two grown daughters. And he anxiously awaits for that time once again, when the houselights dim and those magic words appear: “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”
