Disney has announced more details about Rogue Squadron, Patty Jenkins’s long-awaited standalone Star Wars picture, which was originally scheduled for a 2023 theatrical release but was pushed back. Disney, in an ongoing effort to shift the future of the Star Wars property towards television, has pulled the picture off their release schedule, much to the dismay of fans. In 2020, while Disney was still struggling to define the future of the Star Wars world following the contentious release of The Rise of Skywalker, the first Rogue Squadron announcement was made.
In those days, all we knew was that the director of Wonder Woman was attached to the project. As time has passed, we’ve learnt that the film was planned to chronicle the rise of a new generation of Rebels pilots to prominence. However, Disney’s brief summary didn’t clarify where Rogue Squadron will fit within the complicated Star Wars storyline. Jenkins’ Star Wars film, however, could only depict a narrative between A New Hope and The Force Awakens, given the implication of the title Rogue Squadron. To put it simply, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) formed the elite Rogue Squadron to assault and destroy the original Death Star.
By the time Rey (Daisy Ridley) first appeared in a Star Wars film, the Rebels had renamed themselves the Resistance, with the First Order had replaced the Empire as the galaxy’s foremost enemy. In excess of a year has passed without any public updates on Rogue Squadron. Jenkins discussed her time working on the Star Wars film in July of 2021. According to the director’s original explanation: I’d been doing it for a while before making it public knowledge, so we’re well into it. Everything is great; we’re wrapping up the screenplay and getting the team together. Being able to tell the next chapter of the Star Wars saga makes me feel both responsible and empowered to make a fresh start. It’s thrilling in that respect.
Despite the film’s seeming rapid progress, Disney has stayed mum on the project, and Jenkins’ subsequent commitments to Wonder Woman 3 and Paramount’s Cleopatra have kept her very busy. We now know that Rogue Squadron’s uncertainty over its future was the reason for the radio silence.