Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo: Ryan Gosling movie, Sigourney Weaver in Mando and streaming future

In a city not that far away called Tokyo, Star Wars fans gathered to celebrate all things light and dark (sides of the force).

The ultimate fan convention for Jedi groupies took place over the weekend with 105,000 people flying in from all over the world to get a glimpse of stars including Pedro Pascal, Ryan Gosling and Hayden Christensen, with the latter charging $US208 for each fan photo op.

But for everyone who’s maybe a casual dipper rather than an ultimate devotee, and wouldn’t know how to wield a lightsabre if they were being chased by a Sith Lord, there were still revelations to pique your interest.

First, that rumoured movie starring Gosling has been confirmed, with Shawn Levy to direct from a screenplay by Jonathan Tropper. Gosling took to the stage in Tokyo to announce the awkwardly titled Star Wars: Starfighter will be released in May 2027, and will start filming in spring.

The film will be a standalone story separate from the Skywalker movies that make up the core nine movies spanning from 1977 to 2019, but will be set five years after The Rise of Skywalker. Levy said, “(It’s) not a prequel, not a sequel, it’s a new adventure, it’s set in a period of time that we haven’t explored yet”.

Gosling joked, perhaps reflecting the sometimes contentious relationship between the fans and the work, “All we can hope for is, may the fans be with us”.

The next big screen Star Wars release will be The Mandalorian and Grogu. Over the weekend, filmmakers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni announced Sigourney Weaver has joined the cast as an authority figure in an X-Wing pilot uniform that butts heads with Mando.

The attendees were shown footage not yet released to the public which included action-heavy scenes involving a battle between Mando and some Stormtroopers as well as clips of Grogu, also known as Baby Yoda, using his force powers. There is also a glimpse of Rotta the Hutt, a character voiced by Jeremy Allen White.

Pascal later posted to Instagram what looked to be a behind-the-scenes image of him in costume with the helmet off (Mandalorians are not supposed to show their face, which his character did in the season one finale of the Disney+ show.

The film is the first Star Wars movie since 2019, and is a sequel to three seasons of the streaming series. The studios’ film output has fallen significantly behind its series output, with a bunch of movies that had previously been announced as being in development, only to be abandoned later.

When the Gosling and Levy film was rumoured some months ago, there was scepticism it would eventuate given Star Wars’ recent history of cancelled films, which have included projects from the Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins, and Marvel boss Kevin Feige.

But with a firm release date two years away and a production start timeframe, this is one Star Wars movie that actually seems to exist.

There is also speculation Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, who took part in the Tokyo festivities, will step down by the end of the year.

Star Wars has been much busier on the series front. Overnight, after Star Wars Celebration wrapped up, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that there is another show in development from father-and-son producers Carlton Cuse and Nick Cuse, although details were sparse.

The older Cuse is a prolific TV creator and scribe, having worked on the likes of Lost, Nash Bridges, Bates Motel and Jack Ryan. His son has written for sci-fi shows including Station Eleven, Watchmen and Maniac.

On the small screen, the second season of the acclaimed Star Wars political thriller Andor is due to drop tomorrow. Star Wars Celebration also announced that Christensen will return for the next season of Ahsoka.

The Canadian actor is best known for playing a young Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader in two of George Lucas’ prequel trilogy. He first returned to the role after 17 years in the Obi-Wan Kenobi streaming series and then popped up in five chapters of the first season of Ahsoka.

Filoni, the chief creative officer of Lucasfilm and creator of Ahsoka, told the crowd he was respectful of Lucas’ vision for Anakin, and had crafted his reappearance with that in mind.

“Anakin’s story was already told, George did that. I don’t have to add anything to that. I don’t have to explain anything about it,” he said.

“What George did is what he wanted and it’s perfect. The story I’m telling is about Ahsoka. The reason why Anakin can be in this is because he’s relative to her story. But I’m very careful in what I’m doing, that I’m not changing or adjusting anything that George did.”