Matt Smith is set to make his Star Wars debut in 2027, and while that’s an exciting thought in its own right, it could be even more rewarding for the actor’s fans when the upcoming project is compared to one of his movies that was almost universally disliked. After shooting to fame when he was cast as Doctor Who‘s leading man at the age of 26, Smith has starred in other major franchises. That said, not all of these castings have brought him the same level of praise as the time he spent as the Eleventh Doctor.
Currently set to return once more as a key cast member in House of the Dragon‘s final season, Smith’s career has thankfully recovered from appearing in an underwhelming project set within the MCU’s sprawling multiverse. His role in the Game of Thrones spin-off isn’t the only reason for Smith’s followers to be hyped up, either. The British actor is also set to appear as an as-yet-unnamed character in 2027’s Star Wars: Starfighter alongside Ryan Gosling, Mia Goth, Amy Adams, and other members of the stacked cast. With any luck, Smith’s Star Wars debut will allow him to leave an unfortunate Marvel flop in his rearview mirror.
Who Is Matt Smith In ‘Star Wars: Starfighter’?
In a recent interview with A Rabbit’s Foot, Matt Smith revealed he is due on set in December 2025 to begin shooting his scenes for Star Wars: Starfighter — although director Shawn Levy’s inaugural entry into the iconic sci-fi franchise actually began active production earlier this year. While there currently isn’t a lot of information available regarding Smith’s Starfighter role, he’s reported to be playing a pivotal antagonist within the story.
Interestingly, Starfighter is actually the second Star Wars project with which Smith has been associated. He was once intended to appear as a young Sheev Palpatine in 2019’s Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker. That particular casting isn’t one that ultimately worked out, and Smith’s version of the legendary villain made famous by Ian McDiarmid never made it to the big screen. So, Starfighter is set up to be something of a redemption story for Matt Smith’s Star Wars journey.
‘Star Wars’ Gives Matt Smith His Biggest Villain Role Since ‘Morbius’
Despite leaving Doctor Who over a decade ago, Smith is still heavily associated with playing heroic characters. The Doctor, after all, is often the paragon of virtue in the long-running BBC show. However, Smith has played a handful of morally ambiguous characters since, including Daemon Targaryen in House of the Dragon. In Morbius, Smith was given the chance to play Milo, who served as the Marvel movie’s eventual antagonist in a story that already centered on its sort of villainous title character.
Since then, House of the Dragon notwithstanding, Smith’s other projects have flown pretty under the radar by comparison. While 2023’s Starve Acre allowed the actor to appear as a descent-into-madness character called Richard, the movie wasn’t a particularly commercial hit, despite currently sitting at an impressive 82% on Rotten Tomatoes. So, the movie’s limited reach didn’t do much to shift public perception of Smith’s talent when playing bad guys.
That surely won’t be true of Star Wars: Starfighter. For better or worse, Star Wars movies are pretty much always heavily discussed upon release, and the villains are often hot topics during these widespread debates. As such, Smith will get his best opportunity in years to show what he can do as a story’s villain, rather than a hero or morally grey figure. If he’s received well as Starfighter’s bad guy by Star Wars fans and movie critics, the actor could have his pick of roles going forward on either side of the moral line in other projects.
‘Star Wars: Starfighter’ Gives Matt Smith a Better Chance to Shine as a Villain
Morbius was marketed as a Marvel movie, because it is, but it didn’t truly belong with the franchise’s biggest hits that took place in the MCU’s primary reality. Instead, it existed within Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, referred to by some fans as the Villain-Verse. The sub-franchise tried to capitalize on the fact that Sony had the rights to use various Spider-Man villains, without featuring Spider-Man himself. At the time of Morbius‘ release, only the first two Venom movies had premiered, and although they made a lot of money, they were also criticized.
As such, fans were pretty fatigued with the Villain-Verse when Morbius came along, as well as just generally not being all that interested in a movie about a B- or even C-tier comic book bad guy. The project probably just about broke even, which suggests Morbius had sparse crowds heading to see it at movie theaters. Due to this, Smith’s role as Milo passed many people by. As mentioned earlier, Starfighter is highly unlikely to have that same issue, especially with the trust the franchise has won back from fans with the various Star Wars TV shows that have arrived since the divisive Rise of Skywalker.
In other words, the stage is set for Smith’s Starfighter character to have countless eyes on him when the actor makes his Star Wars debut in 2027. Furthermore, while Milo’s death in Morbius implied the Villain-Verse was going to move on from Smith’s character, Star Wars has a long and rich history of both heroes and villains showing up at all corners of the saga and in various media. If Matt Smith’s character is a hit in Star Wars: Starfighter, it stands to reason that he’ll be back again and again. Star Wars: Starfigher is set to hit theaters May 28, 2027.