Star Wars: Starfighter director Shawn Levy has insisted that he has felt no pressure from Lucasfilm bosses to connect his film to previous outings. The Deadpool & Wolverine filmmaker is currently in production on his Star Wars movie, a standalone story set five years after the events of 2019's The Rise of Skywalker. Starfighter is the first Star Wars movie to not be a sequel, prequel, or spin-off since the 1977 original, and Levy has revealed that it will have no ties to the other films beyond "legacy themes" because he wanted to bring something new to the sci-fi franchise. "Well, for one thing, it is different in that it is an all-new non-sequel, non-prequel adventure," he told Collider. "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." Levy explained he wants his film to be a "big-hearted adventure" with the same "spirit of play" and "real levity" as 1977's A New Hope, which he sees as his "North Star every day" on set. The director noted that he has had no pushback from Kathleen Kennedy and the team at Lucasfilm about his desire to keep the film unconnected to previous instalments. "It's certainly been a dream come true. My 10-year-old self is on set with me every day," he gushed. "But it's a huge, invigorating opportunity because Lucasfilm has been so encouraging of me doing something new. There's no pressure to be derivative or limited by an obligation to what came before. There's just a love of what came before." Star Wars: Starfighter, which also stars Matt Smith, Amy Adams and Aaron Pierre, is slated for release in May 2027.