News about Star Wars movies has been lackluster in recent years, and now we’re suddenly getting a lot of them at once with The Mandalorian and Grogu right around the corner and Star Wars: Starfighter filming. The latter has recently revealed its first official image with Ryan Gosling and Flynn Gray, and the first details about the plot have also surfaced, hinting at how important Gray’s character might be, and Gosling’s role in protecting him at his mother’s behest, played by Amy Adams.
That was enough to send some fans spinning and theorizing already, linking the actors to characters from the late Legends continuity in Star Wars. According to some of these theories, Gosling could be playing a version of Cade Skywalker, a far away descendant of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), while Adams could be Mara Jade, a former Imperial assassin who later becomes Luke’s wife. But it’s impossible that they play these characters in Starfighter, because both characters can’t exist in canon. It’s not that they shouldn’t exist — they can’t.
It Makes No Sense for Ryan Gosling to Play Cade Skywalker in ‘Starfighter’
Looking at Ryan Gosling’s get-up and hair, it’s natural to think he could be playing a scoundrel-type character. Star Wars loves those, and his appearance sure looks similar to Cade Skywalker, one of the biggest scoundrels in the Skywalker clan. He is the main character in the Star Wars: Legacy comics, which concluded shortly before the Lucasfilm acquisition by Disney. This is not your typical adventure tale in a galaxy far, far away, though. Legacy is divisive among fans for multiple reasons, including its dark tone, belated setting in the Legends timeline, bold story elements (by Star Wars standards, at least), and Cade himself, who isn’t really a fan favorite.
When thinking about Skywalkers, people like to think of lightsaber-wielding heroes performing somersaults, but Cade is none of that. He is a survivor of yet another Jedi purge who has decided to live off the grid after losing his entire family to the Sith, turning to death sticks to numb himself and suppress his Force sensitivity. Eventually, he is forced to take action and face his demons, but remains reluctant about his role in the fight. It takes the Force ghost of his forebear Luke Skywalker himself to keep coming back to haunt Cade, otherwise, he would rather stay out of it and keep working as a bounty hunter.
The problem is, Legacy is set over a century after the events of the Original Trilogy, and Cade is a direct descendant of Luke’s. In the new canon, however, Luke doesn’t have any direct descendants, and the Skywalker biological bloodline ends in Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker. Starfighter is set five years after that film, and there has obviously been no time for Rey Skywalker (Daisy Ridley) to have had an adult son, too. If Gosling really turns out to be a Cade-like character, he can’t be a Skywalker, as that would recklessly break canon only to cater to fans who would complain about it anyway.
Amy Adams Can’t Be Playing Mara Jade, as That Would Go Against Previously Established Canon
The second speculation is that Amy Adams could be playing a version of Mara Jade, a former Imperial assassin who eventually becomes Luke Skywalker’s wife in Legends. With the alleged plot that Adams would play the mother of Flynn Gray’s character, some fans thought this could mean that Adams is Mara Jade, and Gray could be Luke’s son, who in Legends is called Ben Skywalker. Both these characters play key roles in Legends stories, like the New Jedi Order and Legacy of the Force book series, and, although George Lucas himself couldn’t stand the character, she is actually a fan-favorite.
Mara Jade was created by Timothy Zahn for the Heir to the Empire trilogy back in the early 1990s. She is known as the Emperor’s Hand, Palpatine’s (Ian McDiarmid) top assassin, and starts out seeking revenge against Luke for killing her master. As the story develops, though, they become enamored, and Luke trains her in the Jedi ways — she even uses the Skywalker saber, Anakin’s old weapon. As the Skywalker clan grows, so do their troubles, and Mara Jade eventually becomes central to the Legacy of the Force series, as the Second Galactic Civil War begins thanks to the actions of Jacen Solo, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Leia Organa’s (Carrie Fisher) son, who falls to the Dark Side and becomes the Sith Lord Darth Caedus.
In the new canon, however, Mara Jade simply can’t exist as Luke’s former romantic interest (despite Mark Hamill’s headcanon), as that would retcon the entire Sequel Trilogy and make three billion-dollar movies essentially worthless. Luke has a perfect understanding of the Jedi Order’s countless flaws, but, until the end of Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi, has never been able to rise above them. If he ever had a romantic fling, it must only have happened before that, and it just wouldn’t fit the character. If Amy Adams really is playing Mara Jade, it has to be a version who never fell in love with Luke, which would also be against her as a character.
‘Starfighter’s Story Sounds Pretty Straightforward, and That’s What People Should Expect
Both theories are obviously wrong, of course, as they are based mostly on how the actors, and this isn’t really how things should be done. It’s not because Ryan Gosling, who is blonde, shows up with unkempt hair that he is playing Cade Skywalker, and Amy Adams being a redhead doesn’t mean she is playing fellow redhead Mara Jade. In fact, with what is known about the plot of Starfighter so far, it’s more likely that they are playing entirely new characters, as they should be. According to rumors going around the internet, Gosling is a rogue-type character who is entrusted with saving Adams’ child, played by Flynn Gray, from the villains, as the kid seems pretty special, likely Force-sensitive.
This is a pretty straightforward story, and a child with special abilities who needs to be saved is a recurring trope in Star Wars, so the chances of these details being true are fairly high. If the franchise wants to return to theaters and remain there, it should bet on fresh and accessible stories. Bringing Legends characters to the big screen seems like a huge mistake at this point, because it would gatekeep who the characters are in order to please the few of us who have read the books. It would essentially mean that Star Wars isn’t for everyone, but only for those who know everything about it, and that’s exhausting. Star Wars needs more, newer fans; otherwise, it will eventually collapse on itself.
Speaking of bringing in new things to the franchise, that’s another reason why Gosling and Adams shouldn’t be playing familiar characters. Starfighter is set five years after The Rise of Skywalker, an entirely new period in galactic history, and that’s exactly where the franchise is supposed to be headed. What does the galaxy look like? Has Rey already brought back the Jedi in some way? Is that why Flynn Gray’s character is on the run? Hopefully, those are the answers Starfighter will give us, instead of making pointless nods to old fans who have nothing new to add to the debate.
Star Wars: Starfighter hits theaters on May 28, 2027.
- Release Date
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May 28, 2027
- Writers
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Jonathan Tropper
