Rogue Squadron: Patty Jenkins says she’s ‘free’ to create the Star Wars story she wants

Patty Jenkins is not new to directing films in a massive franchise, but working on Star Wars is an entirely different beast. The Wonder Woman (2017) and Wonder Woman:1984 (2020) director found success with the D.C. superheroine over at Warner Brothers.

In late 2020, Disney announced that Jenkins would be at the helm of the next Star Wars feature film, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. 

The film’s release is a long way away, currently set for a 2023 opening. But that doesn’t mean that Jenkins and the team at Lucasfilm aren’t already hard at work creating the next big Star Wars project.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Jenkins talked about Rogue Squadron and where the film is at in its production cycle.

"It’s going amazing. I had been on it already for six months before I even announced that, so we’re pretty deep into it. We’re finishing a script, crewing up, and it’s all going wonderful. I’m so excited about the story and excited that we’re the next chapter of Star Wars, which is such a responsibility and such an opportunity to really start some new things."

Jenkins is set to become the first female director of a Star Wars film, joining the likes of George Lucas, J.J. Abrams, and Rian Johnson.

The daughter of an air force captain, a pilot film is something Jenkins has always wanted to direct and create. Now with Star Wars, she’s finally found her opportunity.

In her comments to The Hollywood Reporter, Jenkins made it clear that Lucasfilm is letting her make this her passion project and ceding creative decisions to the up-and-coming director.

When asked about consulting with the “Star Wars brain trust,” Jenkins praised the supportiveness of the studio, as well as the importance of preparedness when it comes to creating a Star Wars film.

"I’m on the phone with all of them and doing Zoom meetings with everybody involved in Star Wars all the time. I’m fairly free to do the story that we want to do, but you really need to know who’s done what, who’s doing what, where it goes and how it works, and what designs have been done before. It’s a whole other way of working that I’m getting up to speed on."

Coming off of the admittedly disjointed sequel trilogy, it’s clear that Jenkins and Lucasfilm are going to plan out their story and character arcs in extremely high detail.

Little details are known about the upcoming Rogue Squadron, so stay tuned to Dork Side of the Force for details as they become known!