Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Mike Redmond | News | July 9, 2026
First things first: The fam and I watched Project Hail Mary over the holiday weekend, and the hype is real. It’s surprisingly great and a genuine, swing for the fences blockbuster. The final scene made me want to light my TV on fire, but overall, I liked it a lot. I also spent most of the film thinking that it firmly completed Ryan Gosling’s transition from solid actor to Movie Star. So, I went into this week all kinds of hyped for Starfighter, Baby Goose’s foray into a galaxy far, far away.
Good feelings gone.
Because the algorithm knows how to tickle my nerd genes, I saw the latest rumors about Gosling’s character, and now I want to light my laptop on fire. (My wife should really hide the matches.) According to reports, Gosling is playing a space rogue named Cade, which should immediately raise the eyebrow of fellow geeks who dabbled in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, particularly the Dark Horse Comics.
“Mike, what is all this dork talk? Cut to the chase.” Long story short, there is a chance that Gosling is Cade Skywalker, a descendant of you guessed it, Luke Skywalker. Yup, this franchise cannot escape this family. Now, there is a good chance that Gosling’s character name is nothing more than an Easter egg for fans. However, it’s certainly not helping that Gosling looks exactly like the character.
Obviously, Gosling won’t be an exact recreation of Cade Skywalker, who didn’t show up until 100 years after Luke, and Starfighter is maybe a few years after his death in The Last Jedi. But Disney Star Wars has played fast and loose with legacy characters, so it would not be off-brand for them to make him Luke’s actual son. Amy Adams is floating around the movie as a red-headed Jedi, and there are rumors that she might be Mara Jade a.k.a. Mrs. Luke Skywalker in the books that no longer count. (God, this is nerdy. I’m sorry!) So, anything is on the table right now.
What does this all mean? Well, for starters, it means that this franchise can’t resist making its main hero a Jedi. Granted, it’s not the worst formula, but Cade is one hell of a Marty Sue: He’s a surly drinking space pirate with the coolest Force powers you’ve ever seen. Via Comic Book:
In the comics, Cade Skywalker was one of the most powerful Force-sensitives of all time; he wielded Force powers that Darth Vader would have envied, successfully bringing people back from the dead. Cade was a wonderfully complex character, a Skywalker who found his heritage overwhelming, and he used drink and spice to try to drive away Luke Skywalker’s Force Ghost. Despite his best efforts, he continually found himself drawn into galactic affairs.
Could Starfighter do all of that without making Cade a Skywalker? Sure, and it might actually work because you have to remember these movies are for kids. Do I trust Dave Filoni and the current state of Lucasfilm to resist taking another bite from the Luke apple? Nope, not one bit. We all saw The Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett episodes. Strap in.
