Ryan Gosling’s upcoming Star Wars movie is turning into a family affair. Eva Mendes is expected to join her husband in Star Wars: Starfighter, director Shawn Levy’s upcoming adventure set five years after The Rise of Skywalker. Mendes will reportedly play the owner of an intergalactic cantina, making her first live-action film appearance in over a decade. Her last film was 2014’s Lost River, which was written and directed by Ryan Gosling.
Mendes’ involvement comes after rumors she was spotted on set in 2025, according to Knight Edge Media. In July, Bespin Bulletin reported she would play a cantina owner named Belle, described as a glamorous 650-year-old alien draped in a gold dress that would make Leia proud. Lucasfilm has not confirmed Mendes’ casting or details about the character. There’s also no sense of whether her establishment is a place audiences have been or an entirely new locale.
Gosling and Mendes met in 2011 on the set of Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond the Pines, released in 2013. Gosling played Luke, a motorcycle stuntman who robs banks after discovering he has a son. Mendes plays Romina, the child’s mother, and her relationship with Luke dominates much of the film’s first act. Bradley Cooper and Ray Liotta starred in the crime drama, which delves into the consequences of Luke’s actions for future generations. They began dating during production and later worked together again on Gosling’s Lost River. Here’s the trailer for Place Beyond the Pines, where you can catch a quick preview of Gosling as a motorcycle stunt rider not named Johnny Blaze:
The Star Wars galaxy has always featured a pretty lively bar scene. In 1977’s A New Hope, the Mos Eisley Cantina introduced audiences to a bunch of smugglers and aliens who apparently had nothing better to do in the middle of the day. The franchise has kept on making reasons to get its characters out for a drink, from the Outlander Club in Attack of the Clones to Maz Kanata’s castle in The Force Awakens. Jennifer Beals played another barkeep, Garsa Fwip, the Twi’lek who owns Garsa’s Sanctuary in The Book of Boba Fett. Sadly, like the show’s reputation, her establishment did not survive the season. Mendes could be tending bar at a familiar spot or running another watering hole for the galaxy.
We wouldn’t be surprised to see Gosling and Mendes’ daughters show up as young Padawans, either. Star Wars has a long tradition of letting the children of cast and crew visit the galaxy far, far away. George Lucas put his kids in the prequels, and one of them, his daughter Katie, played Senator Chi Eekway in Revenge of the Sith. Mark Hamill’s three kids were Resistance fighters in The Last Jedi. Warwick Davis even took his son Harrison along to play Wicket’s son Pommet in The Rise of Skywalker. The casting could have been the will of the force, but it’s most likely just nepotism.
Gosling plays Kade Auberon in Star Wars: Starfighter, alongside Flynn Gray, Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre and Amy Adams. Levy directs from a script by Jonathan Tropper. The film is set to hit theaters May 28th, 2027. While Mendes is joining Gosling in a Star War, don’t expect her to follow him into Ghost Rider. She already starred alongside Nicolas Cage in the 2007 version of the Marvel movie. Levy is directing both Starfighter and Ghost Rider. Mendes returning to movies after more than a decade away is a good reason to raise a glass. And if she really is running a cantina, at least they’ll have a place to celebrate.
