Last year came the news that “Wonder Woman” helmer Patty Jenkins would be directing “Star Wars: Rogue Squadron,” the next official “Star Wars” feature film which is targeting a December 2023 release.
An original story, though taking great influence from the games and books, the film aims to introduce a new generation of starfighter pilots as they earn their wings and risk their lives in a saga exploring “the future era of the galaxy”.
This week, she spoke with THR and indicates she and recently announced co-writer Matthew Robinson are finishing up the script and are already assembling the crew with pre-production well underway:
“It’s going amazing. 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.
I’m 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.”
Jenkins also says she has been “fairly free” to make the film that she wants to, and isn’t shackled by fitting into an overall saga like the episodic “Star Wars” titles have been. That said, there does seem to be plenty of oversight that requires everyone to be up on everything going on:
“It’s an entirely different way of working. I’m on the phone with all of them and doing Zoom meetings with everybody involved in Star Wars all the time. 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.”
The project is separate from other standalone films in the franchise on the way including one from director Taika Waititi, one to be produced by Marvel chief Kevin Feige, and potentially Rian Johnson’s return to the franchise.
Jenkins meanwhile will be re-teaming with Gal Gadot for both a “Cleopatra” film for Paramount, and a third and final “Wonder Woman” film for Warner Bros. Pictures.