Shawn Levy is "proud" he was able to keep Ryan Gosling's 'Star Wars' casting news secret for such a long time.

The pair are teaming up for a new standalone movie called 'Star Wars: Starfighter', which is set five years after 2019's 'The Rise of Skywalker' and is due for release on May 28, 2027 - and Levy has now admitted his previous work on Netflix series 'Stranger Things' taught him to "shut my mouth" to help keep spoilers secret.

He told Variety : "'Stranger Things' taught me to keep my mouth shut. So I'm really grateful for that because I kept the Ryan Gosling news and the title and release date of my 'Star Wars' movie pretty damn quiet for a long time.

"So I'm quite proud of myself and grateful to 'Stranger Things' for making me shut my mouth."

Levy joined 'Stranger Things' as an executive producer on season one and went on to direct episodes in both series three and four.

The moviemaker has been working on his 'Star Wars' project with Lucasfilm since 2022.

Character and plot details remain unknown but last year, Levy insisted he is not planning to connect his work to any other films or TV shows in the long-running series.

Speaking on the 'Happy Sad Confused' podcast, he said: "I'll say that the experience of crafting this story has forced me to think about that question.

"Because there's only so many times that 'Star Wars' movies can revisit the same section of the timeline, and so it's really forced me, because I don't want to do a 'Star Wars' movie that is redundant to others, nor am I interested in doing one that has to serve another movie."

The filmmaker - who has teamed up with his 'The Adam Project' co-writer Tropper on the project - added he was making the film with "tone and characters" at the forefront.

He said: "I really wanted to craft something that felt organic to me, both in tone and characters, so I think that there is certainly the Force and a connection to something bigger than our individual selves.

"And the way that that can make us powerful, those themes, combined with visual delight and wish fulfilment, that's 'Star Wars' to me."

Levy previously opened up casting his leading man - admitting Gosling is perfect for the starring role in his film.

He told PEOPLE: "If you can have Ryan Gosling in anything you make, do that, because that's going to make the thing so much better and cooler."

Shawn confirmed Gosling had joined the cast of 'Star Wars: Starfighter' during a Star Wars Celebration event in Tokyo earlier this month.

The director admitted at the time that working with Ryan represented a "dream come true".

He told the audience at the event: "I had heard at one point that my movie was going to star Ryan Gosling and, believe me, that would be a dream come true for me. So today, I just wanted to tell you here in this room that that rumour is 100 per cent true."