It seems Patty Jenkins' Rogue Squadron movie may still take flight after all, while Taika Waititi's mysterious project has been grounded.
It was assumed that Jenkins' feature, which we first heard about during a Disney investor's broadcast back in 2020, was well and truly dead in the water at this stage, but we're now hearing that the project will still move forward.
According to Daniel Richtman, Rogue Squadron is in active development at Lucasfilm.
Jenkins reportedly parted ways with the movie to focus on directing the now defunct Wonder Woman 3 amid rumored creative differences with Kathleen Kennedy, and it was officially taken off Lucasfilm's release schedule back in 2022.
"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," the filmmaker explained to Collider back in March. "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? "
"It's hard, they have a hard job in front of them of what's the first movie they're gonna do," she continued. "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."
It's nice to hear that Jenkins will (hopefully) still get the opportunity to see this movie to fruition, since she has such a personal connection to the material.
"When [my father] lost his life in service to [the United States], it ignited a desire in me to turn all of that tragedy and thrill into one day making the greatest fighter pilot movie of all time," she said back when the project was first announced. "But try as I might and look as I did, I couldn't find the right story ever. I kept looking and looking, but I just couldn't find the right one. Now I found a story about two things I love."
Though the story might have undergone a few changes since, a previously-released logline reads: "Rogue Squadron will introduce a new generation of starfighter pilots as they earn their wings and risk their lives in a boundary-pushing, high-speed thrill-ride, and move the saga into the future era of the galaxy."
As for Waititi's untitled Star Wars movie, Richtman believes the project has been shelved indefinitely.
No title or story details were ever disclosed, but here's what the Thor: Love and Thunder director had to say about the film during a 2023 interview.
"I've been developing [the Star Wars film] for a few years, but I think with any film, but that one in particular, it's something I'd really like to get right, so I don't want to rush it. It's going to bubble along on the side."
He added, "I wanna capture that joy and entertainment of those early ones like The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi and all those ones, so I'm trying to figure that out. It'll happen."
Apparently not!
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