Star Wars: Rogue Squadron is set to be this year’s big Christmas movie! Wait, what? It’s not out? Despite being scheduled for a December 2023 release, there’s no sign of it. So, if you’re wondering what happened to the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron movie, here’s what you need to know.
What Happened to the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron Movie?
Patty Jenkins, director of Wonder Woman and several other movies, was set to direct a movie about an X-Wing fighter squad – Top Gun meets Star Wars, as IGN put it. There was plenty of source material, too, because while the original Star Wars: Rogue Squadron extended universe books are no longer canon, Disney could always mine them for material. After all, Admiral Thrawn, originally a book-exclusive character, was injected into the “new” Star Wars universe for Rebels and Ahsoka.
Jenkins was announced as the director of the movie back in 2020, and it was, indeed, set to draw material from both the books and original LucasArts X-Wing games. But something went wrong with Rogue Squadron, and it hit delay after delay.
The movie was pushed back, but it was still set for release in December 2023. But then, it was completely removed from Disney’s release schedule, with no real explanation from Disney. So, what happened? Patty Jenkins’ work commitments were likely a factor. At one point, she left the project entirely to work on Cleopatra, though she’s now just producing that one rather than directing.
But it’s also rumored that the project had serious script problems and that the whole thing was “a mess.” So, while Disney/Lucasfilm could have worked around filming conflicts, if the project as a whole was struggling to get off the ground, it’s understandable why the company took it off the release schedule. Even the original teaser, with Patty Jenkins talking to the camera, has been deleted from Star Wars‘ official channels.
Is Star Wars: Rogue Squadron Still Happening?
Does that mean Rogue Squadron is dead? Basically, yes. IGN spoke to Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, who, when asked about the project, replied, “That definitely is something that we still talk about. Whether it’s a movie or it ends up being in the series space.”
So, from that response, we can conclude that Star Wars: Rogue Squadron is absolutely not an active project. Disney has delayed movies, and they’ve still happened, but right now, it’s shelved. It may be revisited in the future as a series, but with the company slowing down its content production, it would need to be assured of a hit for that to happen.
So, the answer to what happened to the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron movie is that there were pre-production problems that led to its cancellation.
