'Star Wars: Starfighter', 'Lucky' finale: Jonathan Tropper Talks All
But even more fun, we talk with Tropper about landing the screenwriting gig for next summer’s original Star Wars* universe film, Starfighter,* which we just caught a glimpse of at D23.
“I was fortunate to have done three movies before with Shawn Levy. They approached Shawn and said we want you to do a Star Wars movie, and you can pick your writer,” said Tropper, “And I landed the gig.”
At the time that Levy and Tropper made their deals, they didn’t know exactly what Starfighter* *would be.
In Star Wars: Starfighter, Ryan Gosling, plays cynical rogue Kade Auberon. He’s confronted by his mysterious past and is hurled into a dangerous adventure across the galaxy that puts him on a crash course with destiny. Along for the ride with Kade, is a precocious child played by Flynn Gray. The title starship is a G17 Imperial Reaper, the fastest ever built. It just so happens to be in Kade’s garage.
“What we wanted to do was to tell a story that was free of (Star Wars) mythology. We were out ahead in the timeline, and we wanted something with as few barriers of entry as possible for new fans and viewers,” says Tropper.
“This isn’t a Skywalker saga movie… we’re not dealing with the history of the Rebellion, the First Order, the Resistance or the Empire, we’re kind of beyond all that” he says, “It’s a simpler movie.”
While Tropper, of course, couldn’t reveal any more details about Starfighter, he does expound on his creative shorthand with Gosling. Quite often, Tropper found inspiration in Gosling’s cadence and expressions.
“He would off-handedly say things; I knew that would make its way into the movie,” says Tropper about the Barbie star, “His voice gets in your head.”
Tropper wrote Starfighter* while literally show-running his own series, Apple TV’s Your Friends & Neighbors, writing pages at nights, weekends and sometimes late afternoons. However, because all below-the-line departments are a go on a Star Wars *movie, quite often great ideas and rewrites came from the crafts side.
“I never experienced this before on a movie, the departments weren’t just executing, they were actually creatively inputting,” he tells Crew Call, “Everything has to be built on a Star Wars movie, you’re not going to Home Depot to get tables.”