Shawn Levy Links Star Wars Film to Stranger Things Formula
The filmmaker behind Deadpool & Wolverine reveals how his approach to the upcoming Starfighter movie mirrors his work on the hit Netflix series, focusing on character-driven storytelling within epic adventures.
Shawn Levy knows something about balancing massive franchises with personal stories. The director who brought us Deadpool & Wolverine is now taking his talents to Star Wars: Starfighter, and he's drawing direct parallels to his work on Stranger Things.
"If I've learned anything on Stranger Things, it's that you can get intimidated by the scale of franchise expectation," Levy explained. "But you will lose your way if that's your focus. I've learned the need to stay rooted in character, and themes and relationships on screen. Yes, there's spectacle and scale, just like Stranger Things. And of course, Star Wars and Starfighter has spectacle and scale and adventure at a level I've never done in my whole career."
Character-Driven Space Adventure
The filmmaker sees his Star Wars project as more than just another blockbuster. "But like Stranger Things, it's also very much anchored in a human-scale character-sized story," he continued. "I think that if I can balance the epic and the intimate the way the Duffers have with Stranger Things, I'll make a movie and an original and new Star Wars adventure that can be really satisfying to fans and audiences."
Ryan Gosling leads the Starfighter cast alongside Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Amy Adams, Adam Pierre, and Flynn Gray. The project represents something different for the Star Wars universe.
Fresh Take on Familiar Universe
"It is different in that it is an all-new non-sequel, non-prequel adventure," Levy said previously about the film. "It's new characters, it's a new timeline. It inherits legacy themes, but it's really trying to give Star Wars [fans] – and just movie audiences – something fresh, something new. And with a spirit of play and big-hearted adventure with moments of real levity that, frankly, A New Hope had in a revolutionary way."
Meanwhile, Stranger Things recently wrapped its run with the fifth season finale on Netflix. Levy's experience directing episodes of that series appears to have shaped his vision for bringing audiences back to that galaxy far, far away.