Lucasfilm’s space dogfighting opus Star Wars: Rogue Squadron re-recruits Patty Jenkins to direct. More here:
First it was announced as happening. Then it wasn’t. Now it’s back on track. Or is it?
Welcome to the topsy-turvy ride that is Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, one of the glut of Star Wars projects that Lucasfilm is looking to get into production to relaunch the franchise’s theatrical side.
Rogue Squadron was first announced all the way back in 2020 and promised to follow the fortunes of the New Republic’s most daring group of pilots as they undertook the kind of deadly missions that would make even Top Gun: Maverick's Maverick quail in his flight suit.
Shortly after the film’s announcement, we discussed some of the film’s narrative possibilities here. Given that Rogue Squadron has popped up in the films and lots of Expanded Universe comics, books and video games, there’s plenty of lore for Lucasfilm to draw on.
The studio handed the reins to Wonder Woman’s Patty Jenkins and everything seemed to be on track until a year later when talk of creative differences and delays bubbled up. Then, in 2022 Lucasfilm removed the project from its production slate and Patty Jenkins left to go and make a third Wonder Woman film instead, although that never ended up happening either.
Read more: Lucasfilm and Star Wars | The status of its 2020 slate of TV and film projects
The loss of Wonder Woman 3 might be responsible for the rebirth of Rogue Squadron though, as Jenkins revealed on the Talking Pictures podcast (via Collider) that she is once again working on the film. Here’s the announcement:
“So, when I left Star Wars to do Wonder Woman 3 , I thought maybe I’ll come back to Star Wars after Wonder Woman 3 . So we did a deal for that to happen, started a deal, but I thought I was doing Wonder Woman.
“When that went away, Lucasfilm and I were like, oh, we gotta finish this deal. We finished the deal right as the strike was happening. So I now owe a draft of Star Wars and so we will see what happens there. You know, like, who knows?
It’s hard, they have a hard job in front of them of what’s the first movie they’re gonna do. They have other directors who have been working, but I am now, you know, I’m back on doing Rogue Squadron and we’ll see what happens. We need to develop, you know, get it to where we’re both super happy with it.”
It sounds like the project is light years from actually getting the green light from Lucasfilm, and given the studio’s history there’s every chance that creative differences will once again be an issue. Still , a Rogue Squadron film seems like a comparatively easy win for the embattled studio.
We’ll see what happens next, but the report just adds to the question marks over the cinematic future of Star Wars. The Mandalorian which was a TV show is now going to be a movie, while the faltering next instalment in Rey Skywalker’s saga was set to be a movie but now has some wondering if it is no more.
Now there’s a Rogue Squadron in the mix too, but as to what happens next? At this point we wouldn’t even hazard a guess.
