Director Patty Jenkins is making major developments in the pre-production stage of her anticipated Star Wars standalone movie, Rogue Squadron. The Emmy Award-nominated filmmaker revealed that she’s working towards a December 2023 release date for the feature, which she’s already putting together a crew for, during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
Jenkins also shared that she’s finishing the script for her Star Wars debut. She’s working on the screenplay with writer Matthew Robinson, who’s known for scribing such action and adventure movies as Love and Monsters and Monster Trucks.
Rogue Squadron will feature an original story, but it will be influenced by games and books in the Star Wars franchise. The film will introduce a new generation of starfighter pilots as they earn their wings and risk their lives, in an effort to explore the future era of the galaxy. Jenkins has a personal connection to the upcoming movie’s plot, as her father was an Air Force pilot,
While discussing her collaboration with Lucasfilm, the production company behind the Star Wars series, the co-writer admitted that it’s a whole other way of working for her. She also divulged that they’re “pretty deep into” the process, stating that “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.
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Jenkins added that she’s “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. It’s really exciting in that way.”
The helmer went on to disclose that Lucasfilm is allowing her to make the movie that she wants to, but it’s an entirely different way of working for her. “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,” she said.
Lucasfilm and its parent company, Disney, are leading the Star Wars franchise in a new direction with Rogue Squadron. After the Skywalker Saga ended in 2019, the two studios decided to start focusing on making standalone movies in the series. Besides Jenkins working on Rogue Squadron, Thor: Ragnarok helmer Taika Waititi will direct another entry in the franchise, while another installment will be produced by Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige.
It was also previously announced that Rian Johnson, who wrote and directed Star Wars: The Last Jedi, would be working on a new trilogy in the series. However, he’s currently shooting the anticipated Knives Out sequel in Greece, so there have been little updates on the status of his next Star Wars installments recently.
Besides Rogue Squadron, Jenkins is also working on several other anticipated films. After the success of her Wonder Woman screen adaptation in 2017, and the release of its sequel, Wonder Woman 1984, last year, the scribe-helmer-producer is reuniting with actress Gal Gadot to make the final entry in the trilogy. The filmmaker and actress are also working on a Cleopatra movie together for Paramount.