Is Sardinia Really the Only Filming Location of Star Wars: Starfighter?

Sardinia has been linked to Star Wars: Starfighter since September 2025, when director Shawn Levy posted a photo of Ryan Gosling and Flynn Gray at sea and geotagged it to the island. Some headlines have gone further and called Sardinia the film’s only real location. That claim does not hold up. Production began in the United Kingdom in late August 2025, and the Sardinian stage came later, in September.

This guide separates three kinds of information that most coverage blurs: what Lucasfilm and Disney have published, what the director and the press have reported, and what nobody has confirmed. It then covers the release date, the Naboo precedent from the 1999 film, and the boat and coast trips you can book on the island today. None of the listings we checked presents itself as a film tour, and this guide does not present them as one either.

What is confirmed, and what is only reported

Before the details, here is where each main claim stands. We rely only on pages we opened and dated on 14 October 2026.

The UK start: where production began

The official word came on 28 August 2025. Lucasfilm and Disney announced that production had started and named the full cast: Ryan Gosling, Flynn Gray, Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman, Daniel Ings and Amy Adams. The announcement did not say where the cameras were. It named no country and no studio, and that silence matters when you read the Sardinian stories that followed.

Trade and entertainment outlets filled the gap. Televisual reported that the production had begun in the UK. Sortiraparis, whose page was updated on 15 August 2026, says filming officially began in August 2025 in the United Kingdom. Sorrisi, writing on 29 August, also placed the production in the UK and did not mention Italy at that stage. These are press reports, not a statement from the studio, and this guide treats them that way.

Later accounts add detail, though still at second hand. A Joblo article, whose publication date is unclear, describes a lightsaber duel shot on what it calls Levy’s London set. Complex, citing a New York Times interview with Levy, reports that Tom Cruise arrived from London and helped film that duel. Both trace back to Levy’s own account, so they tell you what he said, not what a studio published.

We found no page that we could open naming a studio for Starfighter. If a summary you read names one, check it against the original before you repeat it.

The shoot ended in December. Levy announced the end of principal photography on 18 December 2025, and Dark Horizons, reporting the wrap, names Claudio Miranda as director of photography. The sources agree on roughly four months, from late August to December. One summary gives a precise day count that we could not verify, so this guide does not quote one.

September in Sardinia: the director’s sea photo

The picture above is a stock photo of Sardinia’s west coast, at Is Arutas near Cabras. It is not a film still and it does not show a set. We use it only to set the scene for the coast.

The Sardinian link rests on a single post. On 17 September 2025 Levy shared a picture of Ryan Gosling and Flynn Gray on a boat, captioned “Somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea #Starfighter”. NBC 5 DFW reported that he also geotagged the location as Sardinia, Italy, and The Playlist and Fantha Tracks covered the same post on 17 September.

That is the only primary source we found for the island. It places the production in Sardinia at regional level. It does not say which beach, cove or town the crew used, and the post does not name a shore. Wikipedia’s article on the film says filming also took place in Sardinia and concluded in December, citing Variety, which we could not open directly.

Date discipline matters here. The post is dated 17 September, but the sources do not say when the photo was taken. Write that the picture was published on that day, not that it was taken then.

Lucasfilm has not commented on Sardinia in any page we could read. GreenMe noted that the production had filmed in Gallura without an official statement at first, and that the confirmation came from Levy’s Instagram. The director said Sardinia. In the pages we read, the studio did not.

The Sardinian places named by the local press

Italian local media named a commune in north-east Sardinia, and the names repeat across several articles. Olbia.it, Insolenza d2, Porto Cervo Official and GreenMe appear to repeat one local source: Insolenza d2 credits Linkoristano.it, a site we could not open. Treat the list below as a press lead, not a confirmed map.

SiViaggia was the most careful of the Italian outlets. It admitted that little is known about the exact locations that will appear in the film, and it named no commune. Some outlets also quoted crew numbers and day counts that we could not check, so this guide gives none.

Here is what you can safely say. Levy posted a sea photo geotagged to Sardinia. Italian media place the production in Gallura, between Trinità d’Agultu, Isola Rossa and Costa Paradiso. Local press presents the commune as the filming place. Here is what you should not say: that the film was shot at Costa Paradiso, that specific coves appear in the movie, or that a given beach holds a set. We found no evidence that any set was left behind.

Those places are worth a visit in their own right, whatever the film did there. According to italia.it, Costa Paradiso is a stretch of rose granite coast between Santa Teresa Gallura and Castelsardo, with coves such as Porto Leccio, Li Cossi and Le Sorgenti. The regional tourism site Sardegna Turismo lists beaches at Isola Rossa including La Marinedda, Spiaggia Longa and Cala Rossa. Those descriptions tell you what the coast is like. They do not tell you what the film used.

GreenMe also raised a point that fits any visit here. The coast is fragile, and it is already under pressure in summer. Go to see the shoreline, not to hunt for a set.

Naboo and the saga: a precedent for shoots across several countries

Starfighter is not the first Star Wars film shot across several countries, and the saga’s own history offers a useful precedent. Wikipedia’s filming section for The Phantom Menace (1999) is the most detailed open source we found, and it names the places that matter for this subject.

The main shoot took place mostly at Leavesden Film Studios in England, between June and September 1997. The interior of the Theed palace, the royal residence on Naboo, was shot at the Royal Palace of Caserta in Italy. The Caserta palace is a baroque residence near Naples, and in the film it stands in for the Naboo capital, not for a real town.

The forest scenes on Naboo were filmed at Cassiobury Park in Watford, Hertfordshire, according to the same Wikipedia article. A 2012 fan blog places the scene in nearby Whippendell Wood. Because the two sites are close, “near Watford” is the safe phrasing, with Cassiobury Park as the named source.

The desert scenes for Tatooine were shot in Tunisia, with the Mos Espa town built near Tozeur. That story belongs to Tatooine, not Naboo, and our Tatooine guide to the Tunisian sets covers the sites in detail.

The photo above is an illustrative palace interior, a marble staircase with stone lions. It is not a still from the 1999 film, and the image does not show which building it is, so it is not a set either.

That is the lesson the 1999 film teaches. The saga has always been assembled from several countries and several studios, so an “only real location” story is rarely the whole picture. A split shoot for Starfighter is not unusual by Star Wars standards. What remains open is the part the studio has not told us: where its sites are.

Release date: 28 May 2027, and the dates that differ

The official reference is 28 May 2027. The Disney and Lucasfilm page, published with the cast on 28 August 2025, says the film will be released theatrically on May 28, 2027. That is the date to use for the US release.

Two other dates circulate, and neither is confirmed. The Sortiraparis listing gives 26 May 2027 in its French section, which conflicts with its own US date of 28 May. One search summary gives 27 May worldwide, but we could not open that page, so we treat it as unverified. We found no confirmed worldwide date.

If you plan a trip around the release, check the date a few weeks before on the official site and with your local cinema, because the French and worldwide dates may change.

Coast trips to book on Sardinia

Nothing on these listings ties the tours to the production. They are what visitors do on this coast, and they are the practical way to see the water the film’s crew worked in. We kept the list to six tours that fit the places discussed above. Prices are per adult, and the two-adult totals are in the budget table further down.

The full-day trip to the La Maddalena archipelago, which the practical section covers, is the one listing here that sails in the waters off the Gallura coast itself. It is the only listing in this set that covers the north-east corner of the island, the zone the local press names. It is a different kind of day from the sailing trips above, with several stops, so read its schedule before you compare it with the others.

What a two-adult budget looks like

The table gives the per-adult prices Viator showed on 14 October 2026, with the two-adult total beside each one. Prices can change, and they do not include food, transport or any car hire.

Three tours, the Asinara sail, the Baunei coast boat day and the Cagliari tour, come to €500 for two adults, which is a sensible first week on the water. Add the La Maddalena day and the total is €720. Read the cancellation terms at checkout, because each operator sets its own.

How to read the dates and availability

Each listing shows a number of days in the window of 20 to 31 May 2027. These figures are planning counts taken from the operator’s schedule, not bookings. They are not proof that a tour runs on any particular day.

When we checked on 14 October 2026, the booking system confirmed a sample of dates for each tour. That check was taken seven months before the window opens, and it is not a promise for any day in May 2027. We do not claim that any product is available on the release date, or on any other date in the window. Choose the day with the operator, and get the date confirmed before you pay.

A practical plan for the coast

A good first week works in this order. Start with the three-hour Cagliari tour, which gives you the water without a long commitment. Use the next day for a full day, either the Asinara sail or the Alghero catamaran, depending on whether you want the north-west or the west coast. Save the longest days, the Baunei coast or the Gulf of Orosei, for the end of the week, once you know how you cope with long days at sea.

Keep at least one rest day between the long trips. The sources we used do not give drive times between these coasts, so ask each operator where it meets and how long the transfer takes before you pick two tours on opposite sides of the island.

If you want the film in the plan, put it at the start, not at the centre. Read the press reports, then go to the coast for the coast. We found no marked filming site, plaque or set on any of the shorelines, so do not go looking for one.

Mistakes to avoid

• Calling Sardinia the only filming location. The UK start is reported widely, and the studio has not published a list of sites.
• Treating a geotag as a statement about a beach. The post places the production in Sardinia at regional level, and nothing more.
• Hunting for a set on the shoreline. No set is confirmed on the coast, and the coast is fragile.
• Booking a tour because it was in the film. None of the listings we reviewed makes that claim.
• Quoting crew numbers or day counts from sources we could not check. Our sources disagree on them, so we left them out.

Before you go

• Confirm the 28 May 2027 US date on the official site, and check the French and worldwide dates before you plan around them
• Ask each operator to confirm the exact date and start time in writing, since the listing counts are planning figures
• Choose the day with the operator, and do not assume the listing shows a departure on a given date
• Read the cancellation terms at checkout, since they are set by each operator
• Treat every Sardinian filming location in the press as reported, not confirmed

The honest answer is also the more useful one. Starfighter’s filming began in the United Kingdom, moved to Sardinia in September, and the studio has not named the shore. If you want the same coast with a clear plan, book one of the boat days above and treat the film as a bonus. For the wider saga, our Tatooine guide to the Tunisian sets shows how the Star Wars films have always spread across several countries.