Tom Cruise apparently helped shoot lightsaber battle in Star Wars: Starfighter

The set of Starfighter has seen a number of high-profile celebrities stop by. “Last week Steven Spielberg was here. And now Tom Cruise is wielding a camera, ruining his very nice shoes,” Levy says in the story. (Starfighter tapped Top Gun: Maverick cinematographer Claudio Miranda back in August, which may be part of the connection.) Apparently the actor landed his helicopter on the set because he wanted to watch the cast film a lightsaber scene. Levy joked that Cruise could film it if he wanted, and, of course, Cruise is the kind of guy who commits. “Tom Cruise was up to his ankles in mud and pond water,” writes Times reporter Calum Marsh, “…holding the camera like a pro.” Adds Levy, “Now when you see the movie you’ll know that part of it was shot by Tom. I mean, how cool is that?”

There isn’t too much else we know yet about Starfighter, other than its cast includes Ryan Gosling, Mia Goth, Matt Smith, Aaron Pierre, and newcomer Flynn Gray and that it’s set five years after The Rise Of Skywalker. The Times story does confirm that Starfighter will be a sort of father-son story (it is a Star War, after all) via an unexpectedly emotional exchange wherein Levy apparently realized in the moment that most of his filmography is rooted in running away from his depressive and alcoholic mother as a 13-year-old. “…I could never figure out why I kept coming back to these stories of a 13-year-old boy being saved by a man. There was something defining about that moment for me,” says Levy. “And with Star Wars, I’m doing so again.”

Star Wars: Starfighter is scheduled for a 2027 release.

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