Tom Cruise Filmed a Lightsaber Battle in Star Wars: Starfighter

Mission Impossible legend Tom Cruise dropped in on the set of Star Wars: Starfighter via helicopter and ended up filming a lightsaber duel.

Starfighter director Shawn Levy, who also helmed 2024’s Marvel hit Deadpool & Wolverine, revealed Cruise’s set visit as part of an interview with The New York Times, and said that viewers will be able to watch the actor’s work behind the camera when the upcoming Star Wars movie arrives in theaters next year.

“Last week Steven Spielberg was here,” Levy recalled. “And now Tom Cruise is wielding a camera, ruining his very nice shoes.” The director recalled welcoming Cruise to the set — which he landed on in his own helicopter — by playing the Mission Impossible theme via loudspeakers.

Levy joked that Cruise, who had said he just wanted to visit and watch the filming, should jump behind a camera. But Cruise took Levy’s offer seriously, and splashed out into a “muddy pond” to film a lightsaber battle between several unrevealed characters.

Aside from the fact that Tom Cruise helped film some of a major upcoming Star Wars movie — something that is, quite frankly, notable enough — many fans have expressed surprise at this anecdote confirming that lightsaber battles will be a part of Levy’s project.

Now, yes, lightsaber battles in a Star Wars movie may not sound like much of a surprise. (Next we’ll find out the movie has aliens!) But this confirmation has still raised a few eyebrows among fans today, as Starfighter has — so far at least — been pitched as something unconnected to the wider Skywalker Saga’s Jedi shenanigans, and rather more down to earth.

Admittedly, much of Starfighter’s plot remains under wraps, but we know that the movie will focus on a scruffy-looking scoundrel-type character played by Ryan Gosling, as well as his young nephew. Production images released by Levy so far have seen the pair next to a speeder and on some kind of sci-fi raft, with a vibe that seems far removed from the franchise’s usual galaxy-defining space conflicts.

That said, both Matt Smith and Mia Goth have also been cast on the project, with rumors and fan speculation around their mystery roles suggesting they could be playing members of the Sith. Could the pair fight each other, or does Starfighter also include Jedi that the Doctor Who and Dracula actors both fight together? Time, and also now possibly Tom Cruise, will tell.

“This is a standalone. It’s not a prequel, not a sequel,” Levy previously said at Star Wars Celebration 2025 in April. “It’s a new adventure. It’s set in a period of time that we haven’t seen explored yet.” Star Wars: Starfighter is currently due to launch on May 28, 2027.

Image credit: Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social