One of the biggest surprisesStar Warsfans received during theDisney Investor Day 2020was the announcement of a new movie, which is hitting theaters in 2023. The newStar Warsmovie is currently titledStar Wars: Rogue Squadronand will be directed byWonder Woman 1984directorPatty Jenkins. TheRogue Squadronannouncement was one of many shared by Lucasfilm headKathleen Kennedy, who also announced the upcomingThe Mandalorianspinoff showsAhsokaandRangers of the New Republicas well asStar WarsTV showsLando,Andor,The Acolyte,The Bad Batch, andObi-Wan.
But we’re here to talk aboutRogue Squadron. Specifically, we’re here to talk about what Jenkins was willing to share when Collider’s Steven Weintraub spoke with her during the press day forWonder Woman 1984. When asked who was writing the script forRogue Squadron, the director demurred, teasing that “I want him to have his own proper announcement, so I’m going to wait until that comes out.” But it does sound like they’re fairly far along.
As far as where they are in the writing process, Jenkins said:
“We’re very far into the — we’re finishing the treatment basically, which is pretty big. So it ends up being like where you’re fairly close to a well-along screenplay by the time I’m done with the treatment in my process. So yeah, we’ve been working on it for awhile. It’s going great. I’m super excited about it. I’m super excited about the story.”
Rogue Squadronis a notableStar Warsproject for a few reasons. It will be the first new Lucasfilm feature following 2019’sStar Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker. Furthermore, it’s quite possible this new movie will have no connection to the nine-movie Skywalker saga which has been the dominantStar Warsstory for the last 40-plus years. Based on the special video Jenkins shared onTwitterafter theRogue Squadronannouncement, her movie will have a deeply personal connection while also exploring the lives of a new group ofStar Warscharacters in an effort to make “the greatest fighter pilot movie of all time.”
Jenkins also weighed on in the huge spread of projects she has on her plate right now. BeyondWonder Woman 1984, which she is still in the midst of promoting, as well asRogue Squadron, she’s got amovie about the Egyptian queenCleopatrain the works withGal Gadot. Can we expect her to get these projects done one right after the other? As Jenkins told us, she’s got a long road ahead of her should these projects get off the ground
“You can never do it in one year. You could never do a good ‘Star Wars’ movie in one year or a good ‘Cleopatra’ in one year. I think each of those movies takes two years probably. But I do think, as I even learned on the two ‘Wonder Woman’s, I already had sold a limited TV series [‘I Am the Night’] that I was in love with when they decided to move the ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ release date up. So suddenly it was happening on top of each other. And I was actually able to write a huge treatment and have a bunch of creative meetings and go off and do my show while pre-production was happening for ‘Wonder Woman 1984.’ So there is a lot of ways. Certainly, until I’m on set shooting ‘Star Wars,’ I could be developing all sorts of other things and pushing them forward. It’s actually possible. So, I think that’s apparently how people do multiple things at one time, which I’m usually pretty singularly focused, but I’m getting better at this all the time.”
Basically, we should expect Jenkins to be very, very busy for the next couple of years. At the time ofRogue Squadron’s announcement, Kennedy made sure to mention the movie is currently scheduled for release in December 2023. This means fans can look forward to three years’ worth of updates about the next bigStar Warsmovie in the meantime; we can’t wait.
Star Wars: Rogue Squadronis scheduled for 2023. We’ll keep you posted onRogue Squadronas the project develops. In the meantime, get even more Disney Investor Day updates forDisney,Pixar, andMarvel Studiosprojects.
