The first Star Wars spinoff movie since Solo was set to hit theatres in 2023 in the form of Rogue Squadron, a tale of the galaxy far far away’s most elite fighter pilots helmed by Wonder Woman’s Patty Jenkins. Now, the Rogues have been grounded… and it’s going to take a while for us to see when they might just get to take flight again.
The Hollywood Reporter has word that Jenkins, tied up in other movie commitments — including the third Wonder Woman at Warner Bros. and a Cleopatra project for Paramount — has been forced to delay plans for her Star Wars movie with writer Matthew Robinson, which had been set to enter pre-production late this year ahead of filming in 2022. While the film will no longer release in 2023 and Lucasfilm has pulled it from its future schedule, THR notes that Rogue Squadron isn’t off the cards altogether, and there is hope that once Jenkins’ slate of future projects has lightened, she’ll be able to head to the galaxy far, far away.
First announced as Disney’s Investor Day conference last year, Rogue Squadron would’ve been the first Star Wars movie since the conclusion of the “Skywalker Saga” in The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, and part of a long line of future projects Lucasfilm has planned for both streaming and theatrical Star Wars projects. on Disney+ there’s of course the return of The Mandalorian for a third season, as well as the upcoming spinoff The Book of Boba Fett, as well as future limited series Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka, and Andor. Theatrically much of Lucasfilm’s future Star Wars slate remains unknown in the wake of Rogue Squadron’s delay — the only other currently announced projects include a Taika Waititi Star Wars film, and Rian Johnson’s purported trilogy of Star Wars films, which have somehow managed to survive years of silence without being scrapped, at least. Lucasfilm has previously also suggested that it is considering a film set in the Knights of the Old Republic time period, a now-mostly non-canonical imagining of the Republic and Sith Empire’s conflicts thousands of years before the mainline movies, but nothing has been officially confirmed.
No doubt we’ll learn a few more things about the cinematic future of Star Wars soon, streaming or otherwise, soon — Lucasfilm is set to reveal more news about upcoming projects on November 12, as part of “Disney+ Day” celebrations marking the anniversary of the streaming service.