In what might be a surprising bit of casting news, Ken himself Ryan Gosling is apparently in talks to star in Shawn Levy’s Star Wars flick.
Over the course of its many years of existence, Star Wars has generally leaned in the direction of casting mostly unknown/ up-and-coming actors. This is true for the original trilogy, slightly less so for the prequels, and definitely so for the modern trilogy. So, hearing from The Hollywood Reporter that Ryan Gosling of all actors is potentially up for a role in Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy’s Star Wars movie does come as a little bit of a surprise. It’s not like Star Wars is a complete stranger to big names these days, Skeleton Crew has Jude Law, the modern trilogy had Laura Dern, neither of which are exactly small names.
Gosling is obviously a massive name now, already widely known in the 2000s for his role in The Notebook, but also later the star of big blockbusters like Blade Runner 2049 and Barbie. You could maybe even argue that he has too famous of a face for a world like Star Wars, there’s definitely a concern that you might see him and think “hang on, this can’t be a galaxy far, far away because that’s Ryan Gosling!” Still, he doesn’t appear to be signed on just yet, and it’s not even clear what his role would be.
Details are pretty scant on Levy’s entry in the sci-fi universe, we know he’s been working on it since 2022, and that Jonathan Tropper (who Levy worked with on This Is Where I Leave You and The Adam Project) has been working on the script for around a year. Levy himself obviously only just added to another big Disney-owned universe with last year’s Deadpool & Wolverine in the MCU, so he’s clearly keeping himself plenty busy. Now we just have to wait and see which Star Wars movie that’s currently in the works comes out first (it’ll probably be The Mandalorian & Grogu, but things can always change).