A Canceled Star Wars Movie Actually Still Being Made?
It was announced, but is it still happening?
Back in 2020 at Disney’s Investor Day, the company made a big splash by announcing Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins would be helming a Star Wars film, Rogue Squadron. Since then, the film has been stuck in production, with Jenkins leaving to work on a third Wonder Woman movie, but now Deadline reports that the film is back on track. The director herself has confirmed, since being pulled off of Wonder Woman 3 by James Gunn and Peter Safran, she has been back at work for Disney.
The blockbuster announcement came directly from Patty Jenkins herself, where in an attempt to dispel misconceptions about the Wonder Woman 3 cancellation, she walked through the Rogue Squadron timeline. According to the director, the Star Wars film was not advancing fast enough and she did not want to delay the third Wonder Woman movie any longer. Disney allowed Jenkins to go back to DC, saying she was welcome to come back and pick up where she left off after finishing Wonder Woman 3.
That deal has been replaced with a new one, as Jenkins says she has been back on active development of Rogue Squadron ever since. After clarifying the status of her Star Wars film, the award-winning director doubled back and clarified that she had not walked away from Wonder Woman 3. Jenkins chalked up the situation as “DC is obviously buried in changes they are having to make, so I understand these decisions are difficult right now.”
Now that Rogue Squadron is back in production, fans can start getting excited over the thought of seeing the legendary ace pilots of the Rebellion on the big screen. Despite the squadron having a few appearances in the original trilogy, including Wedge Antilles, the squadron leader, Rogue Squadron became a fan-favorite thanks to a series of expanded universe novels. Originally written by Michael A. Stockpole in 1996, the book Rogue Squadron also influenced the incredibly popular X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter series of games on PC.
In the books, the Rogue Squadron includes a Jedi pilot, an Ewok pilot, and many other species, which becomes a plot point when the Imperials unleash a virus that humans are immune to but is deadly to every other species. The first four books in the X-Wing series tell the continuous story of Rogue Squadron, providing plenty of inspiration for stories in the post-Return of the Jedi setting used by The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. There’s no word on what time period Rogue Squadron will be set in, or cast, or even the basic plot, but at least reporting indicates the film is back on track.
While Patty Jenkins is back in a galaxy far, far away with Rogue Squadron, and that means Wonder Woman 3 is not happening under her direction, Gal Gadot may still be attached to her most famous role. At the moment, the only people that know what comes next for the DCU are not sharing information with the public, and as Rogue Squadron demonstrates, projects that we thought were canceled and long dead can come back if the stars align.
