Hollywood stars in a Star Wars film? This shouldn’t really surprise anyone. After all, we’re talking about one of the longest-lasting and most successful franchises ever. Still, no one was prepared for the news that Ryan Gosling might be leading a new installment in the saga. Because such Hollywood stars rarely appear in the galaxy far, far away – and when they do, then only in supporting roles.
Ryan Gosling is what you see in the dream factory referred to as an A-listeri.e. the most popular category of actors. His name is known to the masses and causes a stir as soon as he appears on the call sheet. Although Gosling has not yet been able to prove his box office power too reliably, he regularly poses on the covers of international magazines. Gosling is someone who is talked about.
A shake-up of the Force: A-listers like Ryan Gosling never star in Star Wars films
While he would always be welcome in a franchise like the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Gosling has been linked to Doctor Strange and Ghost Rider in the past), Star Wars hardly cares about this kind of star. You’ll usually look in vain for A-listers in the Jedi Temple archives, starting with Star Wars in 1977 relatively unknown faces in the main roles.
Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher celebrated their breakthroughs as Luke and Leia. Harrison Ford brought a little more experience with him, but he also became a global star thanks to Han Solo and later Indiana Jones. George Lucas’ biggest casting coup was Alec Guinness, who had been in front of the camera since the 1940s. However, he only played a supporting role with Obi-Wan Kenobi, who left the film before the third act.
Star Wars shook up star cinema with groundbreaking special effects and iconic costumes. A film world full of limitless possibilities populated by characters like Darth Vader, C-3PO and R2-D2? The questions the need for mega starseven if as the brand became more popular, the talent associated with it also became more well-known, for example in the prequels.
Liam Neeson, who won the Oscar for Schindler’s List shortly before his Star Wars casting, marks one of the rare exceptions in which a sought-after Hollywood star took on the lead role in a Star Wars film. His Qui-Gon Jinn ultimately adapts to the profile of Alec Guinness’ Obi-Wan – after one film he leaves the prequels and the young stars take over.
Helmets, armor and droids: Star Wars has created its stars apart from Hollywood greats
Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen are the golden trio of the prequels, although George Lucas could have cast Leonardo DiCaprio after his Titanic success. The sequels brought Daisy Ridley and John Boyega into the spotlight and installed Oscar Isaac as Harrison Ford in the new trilogy. The pattern is clear. Ryan Gosling could now shake to its foundations.
It’s probably no coincidence that Lucasfilm is now reaching out to an A-lister. One could have easily attracted members of the Hollywood Olympus in the course of the sequels. However, Star Wars has consciously stuck to its casting tradition of relatively fresh names in the main roles – with the original stars Hamill, Fisher and Ford as an attractive nostalgia bonus for many fans.
Star Wars can no longer rely on this bonus. Fisher passed away in 2016, Ford has said goodbye to the franchise twice and Hamill only drops by for cameos, digitally rejuvenated. Who are the new faces taking the saga to the big screen? It’s no secret that Star Wars is in crisis in the cinemawhile the series on Disney+ distort the understanding of stars in Star Wars.
Theoretically, Pedro Pascal, one of the most sought-after actors at the moment, is first in the credits of every episode of The Mandalorian. But most of the time there were two doubles under the mask during filming, Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder. The Mandalorian & Grogu will have to prove next year whether armor and helmets are still enough for the success of Star Wars in the cinema.
Star Wars has exhausted its own resources and is in danger of losing its event character in the cinema
Star Wars currently relies primarily on well-known characters as stars. However, this barrel cannot be drawn on forever, especially since Lucasfilm has brought back most of the poster boys and girls from the saga – from Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker and Boba Fett to Ahsoka and all other live-action translations from the animation sector around The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels.
But what does the saga look like apart from that? In order to assert itself as the dominant franchise in blockbuster cinema, Star Wars has to be Don’t lose event character. After years in which Star Wars only took place on Disney+, this event character is in danger. Not to mention that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the last film to date, weakened at the box office.
One billion US dollars in grosses is of course still an incredible amount, but it is a significant decrease compared to the previous episodes – especially in view of the fact that the film was marketed as the conclusion to the Skywalker saga. The Marvel Cinematic Universe landed its greatest triumph to date with the finale of the Infinity Saga: Avengers: Endgame. This is where Gosling comes into play.
Casting A-listers brings Star Wars into the conversation on a different level. It’s not about some character that only fans recognize from the 4th episode of the 3rd season of a series whose existence the mainstream audience has no idea about. Gosling has been against it in recent years Topic of conversation several timesfor example as Ken in the Barbie film, which has turned into a pop culture phenomenon.
Change is in the air: Ryan Gosling’s Star Wars casting would be a double-edged sword
In other words, someone like Ryan Gosling could give Star Wars the boost it needs to bring the saga back to the cinema with the greatest possible attention. If the plan works, Gosling will pave the way for other A-listers to come to Tatooine and Co. At the same time, there is a danger that we will only see Ken on Coruscant in the end, because the star power overshadows the film world.
Gosling is an extreme case because he brings an incredibly sharpened profile. The talented, charming, good-looking Hollywood star whose charisma you can unconditionally fall for in a split second. Who thinks of Death Star plans and lightsabers when the aura of such an actor overshadows the mythology of a nearly 50-year-old universe of films, series and more?
Star Wars could be in danger of becoming one of those franchises that collects stars at random. The recent Fast & Furious films come to mind as a chilling example. Because everything there now revolves around names for which the narrative is so distorted that an inflated patchwork of blockbuster bombast is created, without tangible figureswhich take us to the films.
Gosling’s casting, if it actually happens, could prove to be a double-edged sword for Star Wars. At this point we are still far too far away from concrete plans to judge. But change is definitely in the air. A serious casting rumor of this caliber hasn’t been heard in the Star Wars context for years. Something is moving here.
A look at Gosling’s filmography at least allows us to look optimistically into the future. In Blade Runner 2049, his only franchise film before Barbie, he fit in as seamlessly as if he had always been a part of it. And this despite the fact that the Blade Runner environment is a very special one, in which an all too familiar face should actually stand out. Maybe Gosling will thrive in Star Wars the same way.