Shawn Levy has announced the composer for his upcoming Star Wars project, Starfighter, MovieWeb reports. In a recent interview on the On Film…With Kevin McCarthy podcast, the director expressed his excitement and reasons for choosing who to helm the music for his entry in the sci-fi series: 15-time Academy Award-nominee Thomas Newman:

“If you ask me to name my favorite scores, five of the top 10 are Tom Newman: Shawshank, Road to Perdition, Nemo, American Beauty. The guy is a maestro…So, I called up Tom Newman, ‘I’m a fan. I’m Shawn Levy, would you ever consider…?’ And he said, ‘Send me the script, and describe your vision.’ And I did both those things, and it was, ‘Yes,’ and I’m so stoked.”

Levy further explained how he wanted Starfighter‘s music to have a classical feel inspired by but not a rehash of original Star Wars composer John Williams’s iconic score:

“I was thinking about this movie and what I need the music to be, because it wants to be sort of classically inspired. But no, it’s not gonna be remixes of Williams’ cues. It may be inspired by some of that, but I knew that I needed a big-hearted movie score from a composer who, like John Williams, doesn’t shy away from themes… multiple themes. There’s Leah’s theme, the Force theme, known as Binary Sunset, there’s the Imperial March. So, not shying away from myriad musical signatures that help tell the narrative alongside, and in addition to the words and the images.”

A standalone project outside The Skywalker Saga, Starfighter will take place five years after the events of Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker, is written by Jonathan Tropper, and stars Ryan Gosling, Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman, Daniel Ings, Flynn Gray, and Amy Adams.

The film is currently scheduled for release on May 28, 2027.