Patty Jenkins Offers ‘Star Wars: Rogue Squadron’ Update

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A scene from in ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.’ Photo: Lucasfilm.

Preview:

Patty Jenkins has offered an update on the status of ‘Star Wars: Rogue Squadron’.
The ‘Wonder Woman’ director says that her movie is back in development.
‘Rogue Squadron’ was announced in 2020 but has been in limbo ever since.

One of the more exciting ‘Star Wars’ related projects announced a long time ago has seemed to be far, far away in terms of development and release date. ‘Rogue Squadron’ was touted as the next big, non-‘Wonder Woman’ movie from director Patty Jenkins, who at the time was riding high on the success of the Gal Gadot-starring superhero film and had the eagerly-anticipated follow-up, ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ on the way.

What a difference four years makes. Since then, we’ve seen ‘1984’ land to mixed critical response and with its box office hit by the pandemic and the simultaneous release on what was then called HBO Max. ‘Rogue Squadron’ has been seemingly stuck in development limbo with re-writes, and Disney unceremoniously yanked the movie from its release schedule in 2022. Add to that the fact that diminishing returns from the big screen ‘Star Wars’ movies led to the company switching focus to the more successful TV.

Meanwhile, part of the ‘Rogue Squadron’ delay was Jenkins pivoting to a third ‘Wonder Woman’ movie with Gadot expressing excitement to return, a desire that has since been scuppered by a change in regime at DC Studios, the Warner Bros. comic book arm handed to James Gunn and Peter Safran to oversee.

But it appears there is some potentially promising news on the ‘Star Wars’ front…

What has Patty Jenkins said about ‘Star Wars: Rogue Squadron’?

‘Wonder Woman’ director Patty Jenkins at Comic Con International in San Diego, California.

Speaking on the Talking Pictures podcast, Jenkins had this to say about the movie:

“When I left ‘Star Wars’ to do ‘Wonder Woman 3’, and I started working on that, we talked about, ‘Well, maybe I’ll come back to ‘Star Wars’ after ‘Wonder Woman 3’,’ so we started a deal for that to happen. When ‘Wonder Woman 3’ then went away, Lucasfilm and I were like ‘Oh, we’ve got to finish this deal.’ We finished the deal right as the strike was beginning, so I now owe a draft of ‘Star Wars’.”

She also commented on the potential for the new movie, given that the development schedule for ‘Star Wars’ movies has begun to ramp up again:

“They have a hard job in front of them of, ‘What’s the first movie they’re going to do? They have other directors who have been working, but I am now back on doing ‘Rogue Squadron’. We’ll see what happens. We need to get it to where we’re both super happy with it.”

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What’s happening with the other ‘Star Wars’ movies?

(L to R) Dave Filoni, Daisy Ridley and director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy at Star Wars Celebration 2023.

The leader in terms of forward movement right now is ‘The Mandalorian & Grogu’, which Jon Favreau is gearing up to direct based on the sprawling TV universe he’s created alongside Dave Filoni.

Then there is a new story for Daisy Ridley’s sequel trilogy character Rey –– rumored to be titled ‘New Jedi Order’ –– directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, which is inching towards pre-production.

Others in the works (but not as near to shooting) include a ‘Dawn of the Jedi’ film from James Mangold, and still-to-be-revealed movies being written/directed by ‘Knives Out’s Rian Johnson and ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’s Taika Waititi.

When will ‘Rogue Squadron’ be in theaters?

Before you go setting your S-foils to ticket buying position, cool your thrusters: the movie is still at the development stage. The next likely release from the ‘Star Wars’ galaxy is ‘The Mandalorian & Grogu’, which looks to be targeting a 2026 slot alongside ‘New Jedi Order’.