Patty Jenkins Offers Surprise Details For ‘Star Wars: Rogue Squadron’

Fans of the Star Wars prequels practically screamed with joy upon learning that Hayden Christensen would return, as Darth Vader, no less, for the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+  For older fans, however, that elation came upon learning that Rogue Squadron would finally get its due in live action. First led by Luke Skywalker, then Wedge Antilles, the famed and feared Rebel squadron of X-wing fighters was the bane of the Empire’s existence. The new film will feature its pilots. Director Patty Jenkins discussed the film this week, giving us some surprising details about its production.

Patty Jenkins, of course, delivered arguably the best entry of the DC cinematic universe with Wonder Woman. Her follow-up, Wonder Woman 1984, arrives in theaters and on HBOMax this Christmas. That she’ll direct the next, feature-length Star Wars film was a surprise in and of itself. News that Rogue Squadron is already pretty far into development was another, and most welcome, revelation.

Rogue Squadron development already underway

In speaking with Collider recently, Patty Jenkins revealed that the initial writing treatment for the film is already near-complete:

We’re very far into the — we’re finishing the treatment basically, which is pretty big. So it ends up being like where you’re fairly close to a well-along screenplay by the time I’m done with the treatment in my process. So yeah, we’ve been working on it for awhile. It’s going great. I’m super excited about it. I’m super excited about the story.”

What’s even more exciting is that Patty Jenkins will draw from a wealth of existing Rogue Squadron source material. Following in the vein of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni with The Mandalorian, Jenkins is turning to sources such as the games and books of Star Wars Legends.

Patty Jenkins to draw on books for film inspiration

[In the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron movie] we’re doing something original with great influence from the games and the books. There’s a lot of things being acknowledged and understood about the greatness of all of those things, but yes, it’s an original story and I’m so psyched to do it.”

~ Source: Cinemablend

Those books can only be the acclaimed X-Wing: Rogue Squadron series from Michael A. Stackpole. Next to Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy, the Rogue Squadron series is heralded as some of the best Star Wars storytelling of the era in between the original and prequel trilogies. And there’s certainly a lot of material from which to draw.

Rogue Squadron arrives Christmas, 2023.