Patty Jenkins drops other directing projects to focus on Star Wars: Rogue Squadron

We first heard about the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron film when it was announced a year ago at Disney Investor Day 2020.

With the announcement of a film focused on the elite flying unit, directed by Patty Jenkins no less, was met with excitement, that excitement turned to concern for many when it was announced several months later that was being delayed indefinitely and taken off the release schedule entirely.

The reasons for the delay were cited as scheduling issues with the busy director’s other projects causing the production of the movie to be pushed back and making a 2023 release not possible. However, many fans speculated that this was the first sign that the promised Rogue Squadron movie would never actually get made.

Speculation that Rogue Squadron would ultimately be canceled wasn’t exactly out of nowhere. Since Disney has bought Star Wars, there have been multiple projects that have been announced before eventually being quietly canceled months or even years later.

Fantastic Four director Josh Trank was signed on to make  a Star Wars film that that we eventually learned would center around Boba Fett but it was canceled before it could go into production. Likewise, Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff were brought on to spearhead an entire Star Wars trilogy that was canceled before ever getting off the ground.

With stories like that surrounding the development of new Star Wars projects, it’s easy to see why many would view the delay of Rogue Squadron as the first step to the project being eventually shelved completely.

However, there is recent news that suggests the project may not be as dead as those people may have previously suspected. It was announced that Patty Jenkins is stepping down from directing the upcoming Cleopatra movie so that she can focus on the two other big projects on her plate, namely Wonder Woman 3 and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron.

While Jenkins is still staying on as a producer for Cleopatra, taking this step back will free up her schedule immensely, and it seems very possible that she is making this choice because she is still committed to directing a Rogue Squadron movie.

While stepping back from directing Cleopatra, Jenkins is still committed to directing Wonder Woman 3, so her production schedule isn’t completely clear. Although Jenkins has said in the past that the wait for Wonder Woman 3 will be longer than the time between the releases of the first and second Wonder Woman movies, it’s very possible that this will end up not being true.

Despite some mixed reviews of Wonder Woman 1984, Wonder Woman still might be the most successful IP that Warner Bros. and DC comics currently have when it comes to the movies, and they’re likely very eager to get a third movie into production as quickly as possible. It wouldn’t be surprising if Rogue Squadron waits until work on the third Wonder Woman movie is complete before going into production.

Still, in a time where it seems like just as many Star Wars projects are canceled as eventually make it to our screens, it’s exciting to see a sign, that everyone still seems committed to completing this one, even if it ends up being later that we would have liked.