Star Wars: Starfighter, the installment in the franchise due to be released on May 28, 2027 – that’s a year after The Mandalorian & Grogu, if you’re keeping up – has finally got its first look straight from the set (you can catch up with it below).
Ryan Gosling will be our next leading man and eponymous Starfighter, with Flynn Gray, Matt Smith and Mia Goth among those previously announced in the cast.
Annoyingly, we’ve got absolutely no idea what the new Star Wars movie is going to be about aside from some other-world fighting in the starry atmosphere, probably with new creatures and droids.
Day 1: A whole new adventure begins #Starfighterhttps://t.co/eI5xaROQAj pic.twitter.com/8AXiBN4x4BAugust 28, 2025
However, we do have some updates. Amy Adams and Aaron Pierre have also been announced as joining the cast, with Adams set to play Gray’s mother (Pierre’s role has not been rumored). But as much as I love seeing these two act, it’s not the announcement that’s got me, a Star Wars dunce, incredibly excited for its release.
It’s not Jamael Westman or Daniel Ings, who are also in the ensemble. Oh no. It’s Simon Bird, whose name might not mean anything to you if you’re based in the US, or anywhere other than the UK. He’s best known in Britain for playing Will MacKenzie in sitcom The Inbetweeners, and it’s this role that makes his casting incredibly ironic.
Simon Bird’s casting in Star Wars: Starfighter is hilarious, actually
I have four words for you: feisty one, you are. If you’ve ever seen The Inbetweeners, which ran from 2008 to 2010 (not including the movies), you might remember the season 2 episode where Will and the gang head to Swanage for a school field trip, with Will’s eye immediately swayed by new girl Lauren (Jayne Wisener).
While Simon (Joe Thomas) tries to take her for himself, Will dusts off his best flirting techniques over lunch, which just happens to be a Yoda impression. Lauren has no idea what’s going on, claiming she was worried he had “a problem,” and unsurprisingly, she chooses Simon over Will.
This is also the episode where the boys punch a fish in a dingy and set off a distress flare while they’re still in the harbor, so Inbetweeners gold, in short. Will’s Yoda line is something that’s still regularly quoted almost 20 years later, and it took all of 0.5 seconds for fans to pick up on the link.
“From briefcase w**ker to Star Wars pilot, what a glow up,” one fan replied to the announcement on X, with another attaching the Yoda clip and adding “This is clearly the reason why they cast him.”
Another weighed in, “Star Wars casting weirdly perfect here, he’s gonna own it,” with another fan agreeing, “Nah, he’s just gonna crash-land with a ‘bumder!’ and a Yoda impression!”
While fans are speculating that Bird will play a pilot, no official announcement of his exact role has been made.
With director Shawn Levy (Deadpool & Wolverine) steering the Star Wars: Starfighter ship, I hope that he at least subtly pays homage to a moment so famous, it’s certainly made the UK sitcom Hall of Fame (well, it would if I were in charge).
In the meantime, you can watch the Star Wars back catalog on Disney+ in the US, UK and Australia.
