Disney filings show Star Wars: Starfighter is the most expensive Star Wars movie ever

Disney have finally gone and done it: Star Wars: Starfighter has officially broken the bank. As if Star Wars production costs weren’t already a running joke, Disney’s own paperwork now confirms this one is the priciest chapter in the saga to date. It’s not just a little overspend either—the budget here is properly outlandish.

Star Wars: Starfighter reportedly cost a staggering $226.5 million to shoot at Pinewood Studios, making it the most expensive Star Wars film ever made before marketing even starts.

Budget Breakdown (and Profit Drop)

To put it in perspective, The Force Awakens—the big 2015 relaunch—was already expensive, but Starfighter just edged past it, according to documents seen by Forbes. That’s $226.5 million blown before you factor in a single lightsaber-flavoured Happy Meal or whatever merchandising bonanza they’re cooking up.

Here’s the other twist: while the budgets for Disney’s recent Star Wars films stayed massive, the profits have done the opposite. In a rather grim trajectory, Disney’s net haul on Star Wars cinema releases went from about $500 million on The Force Awakens down to less than $50 million on The Rise of Skywalker. That’s not just a wobble; it’s a nosedive. No surprise, then, that after Rise of Skywalker wrapped things up (sort of), the studio put the brakes on any more big-screen outings. Instead, they retreated into endless streaming spin-offs. Only now, years later, have they felt safe enough to stick something back in cinemas—first with the upcoming The Mandalorian and Grogu movie, and then Starfighter.

Plot, Cast, and That D23 Teaser

So, what exactly is Star Wars: Starfighter other than a financial flex? It’s a standalone film set five years after The Rise of Skywalker, and it’s not part of a new trilogy (for once). Shawn Levy is directing, and Ryan Gosling is leading the charge as Kade Auberon—a grumpy space rogue with a history nobody’s supposed to know about.

The official blurb is very in love with destiny and danger: Kade gets pulled out of hiding by his shadowy past and has to dash across the galaxy, clashing with fate (because of course he does). Disney showed off the first footage at the D23 Expo back in August. Gosling’s Kade is seen talking to a kid about an old Starfighter ship, claiming it’s the fastest ever built. When the boy says he’s never heard of it, Kade hits back:

There’s a reason for that.

If you like your Star Wars guest lists long, the cast won’t disappoint. On top of Gosling, you’ve got Flynn Gray, Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman, Daniel Ings, and, believe it or not, Amy Adams.