Aston Martin is joining Disney and Lucasfilm's Star Wars 50th anniversary in 2027. It's a fun headline, but for a brand built on James Bond and still losing money, we're not convinced the logic adds up.
What on earth is Aston Martin doing with Star Wars? On Nov 12, 2026, Aston Martin announced that it is joining Disney and Lucasfilm's year-long celebration of 50 years of Star Wars, with "activations and collaborations" starting in January 2027 and full details due in early 2027. At a glance, this pairing doesn't make much sense at all. Then again, Aston has been quietly sitting on a Star Wars name for more than two years.
We love Aston Martin. We love Star Wars. We're just not entirely sure why these two are getting together. Maybe there's a brilliant plan involving a Darth Vader-inspired Vanquish. Or maybe Aston simply sees an opportunity to grab some attention at a time when it could certainly use it.
Not much yet, and both sides are clearly saving the good stuff for 2027. Here's what the Aston Martin release and StarWars.com confirm:
Here's the first real clue. In March 2024, Aston filed to trademark "Venator", and the US filing was registered on Nov 18, 2025 for cars. Fun twist: AutoGuide reported the name previously belonged to Dutch supercar maker Spyker, which held the European trademark from 2013 until early March 2024. Aston filed for it later that same month. Star Wars fans know that name instantly: the Venator-class Star Destroyer is the Republic's big red-and-gray warship from Revenge of the Sith and The Clone Wars.
Aston has never said what a Venator would be, and there's no confirmed connection to Star Wars. Venator is also Latin for "hunter," which is exactly the kind of name a carmaker might pick on its own. But a Star Wars name sitting in Aston's trademark files more than two years before a Star Wars partnership is a coincidence we can't stop thinking about.
For 50 years, Star Wars has demonstrated the extraordinary power of design and storytelling to inspire generations around the world. At Aston Martin, we share the same commitment to creating products and experiences with distinctive character and lasting emotional resonance, making this a natural and exciting collaboration.
Finbar McFall, Global Director of Marketing and SVO, Aston Martin
Note the SVO in that title. That's Special Vehicle Operations, the department that builds Aston's specials and one-offs. We're not saying a Star Wars car is coming. We're just saying we noticed.
Bond works because the car is part of the story. The DB5 arrived in Goldfinger in 1964 with machine guns and an ejector seat, and it has now appeared in eight Bond films. For Spectre, Aston built just 10 DB10s, a car that also previewed the next Vantage. And in 2018 it announced 25 Goldfinger DB5 continuation cars with working gadgets developed by Oscar-winning Bond effects man Chris Corbould. If anybody can make movie magic you can park in your garage, it's Aston. No Aston has ever appeared in a Star Wars film, so this time there's no hero car to build around.
The timing is hard to ignore. To be fair, Aston isn't in free fall: its third-quarter results, released Oct 28, 2026, showed revenue up 36% to £388.7 million on 127 Valhalla deliveries, and the loss before tax shrank to £77.1 million from £111.9 million a year earlier. But it's still losing money. Core-model shipments, meaning everything except specials like the Valhalla, fell 9% from a year earlier, and net debt climbed to £1.57 billion after a July financing that Carscoops put at about $735 million. A year of Star Wars attention is not nothing for a brand in that spot.
The best Star Wars car moment was an ad: Volkswagen's 2011 Super Bowl spot "The Force," made with Lucasfilm, with a pint-size Darth Vader "starting" a Passat. Adweek called it the most-watched Super Bowl ad ever. The first actual Star Wars car came about, MotorTrend reported, largely because of a name: the 2017 Nissan Rogue: Rogue One Star Wars Limited Edition. Nissan built 5,400, 5,000 for the US and 400 for Canada, with Star Wars badging, a glowing kickplate and a numbered Death Trooper helmet in the box, for a $1,990 package. It came only in black or white, with Rebel Alliance and Galactic Empire decals on the rear pillars. Fun? Absolutely. Exotic? It was a 170-horsepower compact crossover. Aston has to aim a lot higher.
Aston's full program lands in early 2027. Carscoops expects space-inspired special editions or trim packages, which is reasonable but still speculation. The big Star Wars dates for US and Canadian fans are set: the Philadelphia exhibition opens Feb 13, the original film returns to theaters Feb 19 and Star Wars: Starfighter opens May 28. Aston is also the only carmaker StarWars.com names in its anniversary announcement, sharing the billing with brands like adidas and Steinway, which tells you this is pitched as a luxury and design play, not a cereal box promotion. If Aston has a car to show, those are the stages.
We get why Lucasfilm wanted Aston Martin. We're less sure why Aston wanted this, and why now. Star Wars has no natural role for a British grand tourer, and with core sales down and debt up, a year of buzz can't hurt. Whether it sells a single extra DB12 is another question.
Could something genuinely cool come out of it? Absolutely, if SVO gets the keys. Give us a Vanquish in matte Imperial gray with a Vader-black cabin, a DBX in Rebel orange, and please, finally, a car wearing the Venator name. Make it limited and properly bespoke, the way the Goldfinger DB5 continuation cars were, with real details instead of stickers. A Starfighter premiere in May would be the perfect place to pull the cover off. Nissan did decals and a helmet. At Aston money, that won't fly.
What it means for buyers: there's nothing to order yet. Aston hasn't announced a car, a price or a build count, so ignore anyone selling "allocations." Watch three things in 2027: the early-year program announcement, any SVO special or paint-and-trim package with a build count, and whether the Venator name finally shows up on a car. If a limited Star Wars Aston does appear, expect interest from car collectors and Star Wars collectors alike. Until then, the Force is strong with this one, but the order books aren't open.
Aston Martin has taken the roof off the Valhalla. The Spider keeps the coupe's 1,064 hp plug-in hybrid V8 and 217 mph top speed, even with the roof stowed, but costs a lot more: UK reports put it around £1.3 million. About 250 will be built, most are already spoken for, and deliveries start in the second half of 2027.
