There aren’t many beloved ’80s sci-fi franchises left that haven’t been rebooted or resurrected in the past few years, but one that’s never been able to get off the ground has been The Last Starfighter. It looks like that’s about to change.
Screenwriter Gary Whitta, who most recently penned Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, revealed on his Twitter account on April 4 that he’s hard at work on putting together a Last Starfighter reboot. Not only that, but he’s actually co-writing it with the man who wrote the original, Jonathan Betuel. Whitta shared a bunch of concept art from the project, while writing, “Okay, probably shouldn’t show you this so early but here’s a little something I’ve been tinkering on with my co-writer Jonathan Betuel. You might recognize the ships. Thanks to the amazing Matt Allsopp (lead concept artist on Rogue One) for creating these images for us.”
Okay, probably shouldn’t show you this so early but here’s a little something I’ve been tinkering on with my co-writer Jonathan Betuel. You might recognize the ships. Thanks to the amazing Matt Allsopp (lead concept artist on ROGUE ONE) for creating these images for us. pic.twitter.com/CIobLYYRHk
— Gary Whitta (@garywhitta) April 4, 2018
The pictures do look a little Star Warsy, but that can be chalked up to Allsopp’s involvement. The main news here is that we could be getting a new Last Starfighter movie with the involvement of the original creator! The 1984 cult film about a normal teenager who ends up in an intergalactic war after playing a video game rarely gets mentioned alongside other sci-fi classics of the era, and a new installment could go a long way toward cementing and building upon the film’s legacy. Now before you complain about another reboot, know this: the new film would act as both a reboot of the franchise and a sequel to the original film.
“I happened to track Jon (Betuel) down, and after I was done pestering him with all my fanboy questions about the original film we started to talk about what a new version might look like,” Whitta told io9. “Since then we’ve spent so many hours working on it I’ve long since lost count, but right now we have a fully developed story that is a combination of reboot and sequel that we both think honors the legacy of the original film while passing the torch to a new generation. We’re both very excited about it creatively.” Whitta also told io9 that he’s reached out to Seth Rogen about becoming involved, since he, too, is a major fan of the original who has flirted with the idea of a remake.
Obviously this is still very early in the going, and even Whitta admits he’s not entirely sure where the rights to the property lie, but if everything works out with the legal issues, it sounds like we could very well have a new Last Starfighter movie within the next few years — and that’s definitely a reboot we can get behind.
