The Big Picture
- Patty Jenkins claims she has signed a new deal with Lucasfilm and Disney to write and direct
Rogue Squadron
. - Jenkins said the project initially paused for her to work on
Wonder Woman 3
, which is no longer in production. - In an earlier statement, the director said
Rogue Squadron
would honor her late father, who was a fighter pilot.
In a stunning turn of events, Patty Jenkins has claimed that she has signed a new deal with Lucasfilm and Disney to return to work as the writer and director of a Rogue Squadron movie, which was agreed just prior to this summer’s strikes. Jenkins, who left the role in order to make Wonder Woman 3, told host Ben Mankiewicz on the TCM/Max podcast, Talking Pictures, that she had signed an agreement to return to a galaxy far, far away. For their part, Disney has provided no further updates on the project since it was pulled from the calendar back in 2022.
Rogue Squadron was first announced in 2020 when Disney was still trying to define the future of the Star Wars universe after the release of The Rise of Skywalker, but very little detail followed other than it was about a new generation of Rebel Alliance fighters as they sought to become the best flying squadron in the galaxy. Jenkins was announced as director, and in a short video, explained why.
Jenkins wanted to create Rogue Squadron to fulfill her ambition of making the ultimate fighter pilot movie, a dream inspired by her late father, Capt. William T. Jenkins, a U.S. Air Force pilot who served during the Vietnam War. Jenkins aimed to combine her love for high-speed thrill and the expansive universe of Star Wars to honor her father’s memory and her fascination with aerial combat, striving to create a movie that captures the essence of both. However, she left the project to make Wonder Woman 3, before subsequently losing that project in the wake of the DC Studios takeover by James Gunn and Peter Safran. Now, she says, she’s back in the cockpit after last commenting on the project 15 months ago.
“So, when I left
Star Wars
to do
Wonder Woman 3
, I thought maybe I’ll come back to
Star Wars
after
Wonder Woman 3
. So we did a deal for that to happen, started a deal, but I thought I was doing
Wonder Woman.
When that went away, Lucasfilm and I were like, oh, we gotta finish this deal. We finished the deal right as the strike was happening. So I now owe a draft of
Star Wars
and so we will see what happens there. You know, like, who knows?And so we will see what happens there. You know, like, who knows? It’s hard, they have a hard job in front of them of what’s the first movie they’re gonna do. They have other directors who have been working, but I am now, you know,
I’m back on doing
Rogue Squadron
and we’ll see what happens.
We need to develop, you know, get it to where we’re both super happy with it.
Why Does Patty Jenkins Want to Make a ‘Star Wars’ Movie?
For her part, Jenkins was massively enthusiastic about the prospects of making a Star Wars film, and insisted that the themes of fighter pilots and good versus evil married together perfectly, claiming that to make a project like this would be a dream.
“Star Wars is beautiful, the emotion of Star Wars and what it stands for is something so beautiful in this world and particularly in a moment that we’re at right now where Star Wars was born out of World War II, right?” she said. “It’s born out of how do you make a metaphor and talk in metaphor, right? Exactly, and so in that way, I’ve always wanted to make a fighter pilot movie. It’s been a dream.”
Stay tuned to Collider for further updates.
