Draft:Rogue Squadron (film)

Rogue Squadron is an upcoming American space opera film directed by Patty Jenkins from a screenplay by Matthew Robinson. Produced by Lucasfilm and set to be distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is part of the Star Wars franchise. The film introduces a new generation of starfighter pilots.

The project was announced in December 2020 with Jenkins attached. She was working with Robinson on the screenplay by then, with filming planned to begin in early 2022. Production was indefinitely delayed in November 2021 due to Jenkins' work on a planned sequel to her film Wonder Woman 1984 (2020). After that project was cancelled and following the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, Jenkins returned to work on Rogue Squadron.

Premise
Rogue Squadron introduces a new generation of starfighter pilots who must "earn their wings and risk their lives".

Development
At the Walt Disney Company's Investor Day event on December 10, 2020, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy announced that the next Star Wars film would be directed by Patty Jenkins and was titled Rogue Squadron. Jenkins was the first woman hired to direct a Star Wars film. She had visited the set of the franchise's previous film, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), due to crew members from that film also working on her own film, Wonder Woman 1984 (2020). After being friendly with Kennedy during that visit, Jenkins was asked by Lucasfilm if she would be interested in directing a Star Wars film. She said it would depend on the story, and agreed to direct Rogue Squadron due to its focus on starfighter pilots, as her father was a fighter pilot for the United States Air Force and she had always wanted to make "the greatest fighter pilot movie of all time". Jenkins said she felt pressure from Star Wars fans to make sure the film was good, but she had experience with the pressure of being a franchise's first female director after directing Wonder Woman (2017) and Wonder Woman 1984.

At the time of the film's announcement, Jenkins revealed that she had been working on it with an unannounced writer for around six months, and they had almost finished a treatment for the film which she considered to be "fairly close to a well-along screenplay". Jenkins said the film would tell an original story but had been influenced by the 1990s Rogue Squadron video game series and books, which feature a team of starfighter pilots formed by Luke Skywalker to fight the Empire. Lucasfilm described the film as a "high-speed thrill-ride" and said it would "move the [Star Wars] saga into the future era of the galaxy". Matthew Robinson was revealed to be the film's writer in June 2021, and Jenkins said a month later that they were finishing the script and beginning to hire crew members. She noted that she was "fairly free" to tell the story that she wanted to tell, but the development process for the film involved a lot of consultation with Lucasfilm to ensure that it aligned narratively and visually with previous and upcoming Star Wars projects. Pre-production was scheduled to begin in late 2021 ahead of a filming start in early 2022, but production for the film was indefinitely delayed in November 2021 due Jenkins' work on a planned sequel to Wonder Woman 1984. Rogue Squadron release date was not changed at that time.

In May 2022, the film was expected to come after a different planned Star Wars film from Taika Waititi. Rogue Squadron was removed from Disney's release schedule that September. In early December, Wonder Woman 3 was cancelled. Jenkins explained that when she left Rogue Squadron to focus on Wonder Woman 3, Lucasfilm had asked her to consider returning to the project once she was free and they had ultimately started a new deal for her to continue developing Rogue Squadron. The film was reportedly no longer in active development by March 2023. At Star Wars Celebration London the next month, Kennedy said Lucasfilm was still discussing the project as a potential future film or series. That November, Dave Filoni revealed that he was now chief creative officer at Lucasfilm, after serving as executive producer on various Star Wars television series, and would be directly involved in the planning of future films and series. In March 2024, Jenkins said her new deal to develop Rogue Squadron was finalized in early 2023 but further work on the film was delayed by the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike. She now owed Lucasfilm a new draft of the script. Jenkins noted that Lucasfilm had begun work on other Star Wars film projects and she was unsure if Rogue Squadron would end up happening.

Release
Rogue Squadron was originally scheduled for release on December 22, 2023, before it was removed from Disney's release schedule after production was indefinitely delayed due to Jenkins' other commitments.