diff --git a/src/app.ts b/src/app.ts
index 93e541f0190..f0ff28f5b5a 100644
--- a/src/app.ts
+++ b/src/app.ts
@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@ import {
   segmentToMiddlewares,
 } from "./segments.ts";
 import { isHandlerByMethod, type PageResponse } from "./handlers.ts";
-import { staticFiles } from "./middlewares/static_files.ts";
 
 // TODO: Completed type clashes in older Deno versions
 // deno-lint-ignore no-explicit-any
@@ -408,21 +407,16 @@ export class App<State> {
       return missingBuildHandler;
     }
 
+    const rootMiddlewares = this.#root.middlewares;
+
     // Fallthrough
-    this.#addMiddleware(
-      "ALL",
-      "*",
-      [...this.#root.middlewares, staticFiles()],
-      true,
-    );
+    this.#addMiddleware("ALL", "*", rootMiddlewares, true);
 
     for (let i = 0; i < this.#routeDefs.length; i++) {
       const route = this.#routeDefs[i];
       this.#router.add(route.method, route.pattern, route.fns, route.unshift);
     }
 
-    const rootMiddlewares = this.#root.middlewares;
-
     return async (
       req: Request,
       conn: Deno.ServeHandlerInfo = DEFAULT_CONN_INFO,
diff --git a/src/middlewares/static_files_test.ts b/src/middlewares/static_files_test.ts
index bb9c1c1df04..fdc0af705c1 100644
--- a/src/middlewares/static_files_test.ts
+++ b/src/middlewares/static_files_test.ts
@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
 import { staticFiles } from "./static_files.ts";
-import { serveMiddleware } from "../test_utils.ts";
+import { FakeServer, serveMiddleware } from "../test_utils.ts";
 import type { BuildCache, StaticFile } from "../build_cache.ts";
 import { expect } from "@std/expect";
 import { ASSET_CACHE_BUST_KEY } from "../runtime/shared_internal.tsx";
 import { BUILD_ID } from "../runtime/build_id.ts";
+import { App, setBuildCache } from "../app.ts";
 
 class MockBuildCache implements BuildCache {
   buildId = "MockId";
@@ -211,16 +212,34 @@ Deno.test("static files - fallthrough", async () => {
     "foo.css": { content: "body {}", hash: null },
   });
 
-  const server = serveMiddleware(
-    staticFiles(),
-    { buildCache, next: () => Promise.resolve(new Response("it works")) },
-  );
+  let called: string[] = [];
+  const app = new App<{ text: string }>()
+    .use((ctx) => {
+      ctx.state.text = "it";
+      called.push("before");
+      return ctx.next();
+    })
+    .use(staticFiles())
+    .use((ctx) => {
+      ctx.state.text += " works";
+      called.push("after");
+      return ctx.next();
+    })
+    .get("/", (ctx) => new Response(ctx.state.text));
+
+  setBuildCache(app, buildCache);
+
+  const server = new FakeServer(app.handler());
 
   let res = await server.get("foo.css");
   let text = await res.text();
   expect(text).toEqual("body {}");
+  expect(called).toEqual(["before"]);
+
+  called = [];
 
   res = await server.get("/");
   text = await res.text();
   expect(text).toEqual("it works");
+  expect(called).toEqual(["before", "after"]);
 });