Ryan Gosling has flexed his Kenergy for all to see in Greta Gerwig's Barbie, gone toe-to-toe with Harrison Ford in Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049, and knocked our socks off in everything from The Nice Guys to La La Land to last year's stunt spectacular The Fall Guy (and that 'Papyrus' bit from SNL.) The man, it would be fair to say, has some considerable star power. But how about Star Wars power? Well, in a wholly unexpected turn of events, THR is reporting that the three-time Oscar nominee is in talks to lead Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy's upcoming Star Wars movie. Yes, you did read that correctly!
Per THR's exclusive, the Canadian national treasure is currently in negotiations to topline Shawn Levy's highly secretive jaunt to a galaxy far, far away — and should he sign on to star in the movie, then the as-yet-untitled project would shoot to the front of Disney and Lucasfilm's production queue. In fact, according to THR's sources, if Levy lands his man then cameras could roll as soon as this Christmastime, putting this just behind the already wrapped The Mandalorian & Grogu in Kathleen Kennedy and co's pipeline. Now, we have no idea at this point who Gosling would prospectively be playing here, just as we have no idea when the film is set or indeed what its plot entails, but we do know that Levy's The Adam Project collaborator Jonathan Tropper — who brought more than a touch of Lucas' space opera to the duo's last movie — has been working on a script for well over a year now.
While rumours spread over a decade ago about Gosling potentially being in the frame for a role in J.J. Abrams' first Disney Star Wars film, aside from dabbling in sci-fi with Blade Runner 2049 and taking a short trip into space for First Man (and, of course, upcoming Lord & Miller joint Project Hail Mary), the Drive actor has largely kept his feet on terra firma and avoided franchise fare thus far. But with Levy at the helm, Tropper on script, and Ryan Gosling's Oscars 2024 performance proving that there is quite simply nothing that the man can't do, if this project does actually come together with this trio spearheading, suffice it to say the Force and the Kenergy will be very strong with this one. LFG!
