Star Wars has undergone a significant transformation over the last several years. Following Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm, the galaxy far, far away made a big return after over a decade of inactivity (at least on the live-action feature film front). Star Wars: The Force Awakens hit theaters in December 2015, and it was quickly followed up by Rogue One in 2016; The Last Jedi in 2017; Solo in 2018, and eventually The Rise of Skywalker in 2019. The franchise was going strong, with Solo being the only film of the bunch not to pull in a billion dollars at the worldwide box office.

Despite all of that theatrical success, it has been almost three years since the last Star Wars film hit the big screen. While Disney+ series such as The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and most recently Andor, have kept the franchise alive and ever-present in the minds of general audiences, at this point, there is no telling when a new Star Wars adventure will be seen in cinemas again. Disney and Lucasfilm have announced and discussed several contenders to follow The Rise of Skywalker, but none have come to fruition. The most likely of this group was a Rogue Squadron film, which was set to be directed by Patty Jenkins. But now even that film has been pulled from Disney’s release schedule. The development of Rogue Squadron has been a very public rollercoaster ride, so here’s what we know about this film that may or may not still be happening.

What Is the Movie?

The Star Wars Rogue Squadron game
LucasArts

Rogue Squadron was originally announced in December 2020 with a release date set for Christmas of 2023. The announcement was made a few weeks prior to Jenkins’ latest film, Wonder Woman 1984, being released in theaters and on HBO Max. A written announcement on StarWars.com described the film as depicting “a new generation of starfighter pilots as they earn their wings and risk their lives in a boundary-pushing, high-speed thrill-ride.” Though no specific time period was specified, the description does say the film would move the Star Wars saga into the future era of the galaxy, implying the story might’ve been set after the events of The Rise of Skywalker.

The announcement was the biggest to come from the Lucasfilm portion of the Disney Investor Day 2020 presentation. A video was released alongside the announcement, which featured Jenkins talking about her excitement for the film. She describes her desire to make “the greatest fighter pilot movie of all time.” She says that she was inspired to make the film as a tribute of sorts to her father, who was a fighter pilot himself. The video ultimately ended with Jenkins suiting up, putting a helmet on and walking toward a nearby X-Wing. The potential of the film certainly lit the internet ablaze, but in the years since, Rogue Squadron has failed to really materialize. Now, there is doubt over whether or not the film will be made at all.

Related: Andor Explained: The Character, Home World, and Timeline

Patty Jenkins’ Busy Schedule

Patty Jenkins on the set of Wonder Woman
Warner Bros. Pictures

One of the initial factors in Rogue Squadron’s developmental troubles was Patty Jenkins’ busy schedule. Although the reception to Wonder Woman 1984 was not as positive as the first Wonder Woman film, Jenkins largely maintained her status as a big-name director in Hollywood. She directed Charlize Theron to an Oscar-win with 2003’s Monster, she worked on a number of praised television series in the early 2010s; she nearly directed Thor: The Dark World, but it wasn't until 2017’s Wonder Woman that Jenkins really broke into the mainstream atmosphere. Wonder Woman was a major hit, and it was exactly what Jenkins needed. It finally established her place in the industry, and it revitalized her career as an immensely talented director with an eye for franchise filmmaking.

That is why it was such a big deal when Star Wars managed to sign Jenkins on for a new feature film in the franchise. However, Jenkins was already working on two other high-profile projects at the time. The first was a large-scale re-telling of the story of Cleopatra, with Gal Gadot attached as the star. The second was a third Wonder Woman film, which would complete Jenkins' trilogy of movies with the character. As Jenkins was busy balancing these three large films, the shooting schedule for Rogue Squadron had to be delayed out of 2021, with no further word on when production would actually take place. Then, in November 2021, reports surfaced that suggested the film would need to be delayed again, as Jenkin’s busy schedule would not allow for a 2022 shoot either.

Soon after, Jenkins had to pair down the projects she was working on so that her efforts could be more focused. This led to her leaving the director’s chair on Cleopatra, with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier director Kari Skogland stepping in as her replacement. This move from Jenkins, a month after the reported delay and only a year after the initial announcement of Rogue Squadron, signaled a renewed focus on making the film happen. However, as 2022 has progressed, there have been very few updates from Jenkins or Lucasfilm about the project. There was no word given regarding its status at the Star Wars Celebration convention in May, nor was the movie discussed during the Lucasfilm presentation at D23 in September. Now, there has finally been some news about the film, though (not surprisingly) it isn't positive. Disney has now completely removed the film from their release schedule, meaning there is officially no word on when or if the movie will eventually be released.

Star Wars’ Struggle With New Films

Phil Lord and Chris Miller on the set of Solo
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

This isn’t the first time that Lucasfilm has struggled to see a film through to the end in this new Disney-owned era of Star Wars. There has been a seemingly endless line of different directors that have come on-board exciting new projects only to leave them over “creative differences” with the studio. On nearly a half-dozen occasions over the last seven years, Lucasfilm has proudly announced they were working with an exciting new director, only to part ways with the filmmaker later on down the road. Sometimes the film in question would even be canceled entirely as a result. The first director this happened to, was Josh Trank, who was on board to direct a standalone Star Wars film as far back as 2014. The film reportedly would’ve centered on the fan-favorite bounty hunter Boba Fett, but after the disaster that was Trank’s 2015 Fantastic Four, the director was let go and work on the film ceased entirely. It wasn't until earlier this year that the character eventually got his own adventure in the Disney+ series, The Book of Boba Fett.

Although Disney and Lucasfilm seemingly had (and have) good relationships with J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson, the directors of the sequel trilogy of films, every film outside that sequel trilogy has had problems with its director. Although Gareth Edwards is still credited as the director of Rogue One, numerous reports indicate that he was replaced by Tony Gilroy as the director during the film’s extensive re-shoots. Considering Gilroy is the creative spearhead on the new Rogue One spin-off Andor, there seems to be some truth to this. The second standalone Star Wars story to hit theaters was Solo, which had even more directorial drama. 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were notoriously fired from the movie after it had already begun shooting, which caused a mad scramble to find someone to fill in for them while the film was still actively in production. Ron Howard eventually got the gig, but the resulting film is a mishmash of different tones that feels like it has three hands on the wheel at all times.

Beyond that, there was also Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow, who was hired to direct Episode IX of the new trilogy, but he was fired and replaced by J.J. Abrams only a few years before the film's release. Trevorrow’s script for the ninth film, which he titled Duel of the Fates, can be found online. The showrunners behind Game of Thrones, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, were also hired to helm a new trilogy of Star Wars movies that were set for release after The Rise of Skywalker. These films were originally dated for 2022, 2024 and 2026 releases, but, as with so many before them, the two ended up parting ways with Lucasfilm before anything too concrete got off the ground.

Related: Rian Johnson Says He's Not Done With Star Wars: 'It Would Break My Heart If I Were Finished'

Will Rogue Squadron Actually Happen?

X-Wings in the original Star Wars
20th Century Fox

The point of going through all of those directors is to show that it’s not a rare occurrence for Disney and Lucasfilm to have behind-the-scenes turmoil with the directors they have hired for the Star Wars films. At this point, "creative differences" seem to happen more often than not. Now, that’s not to say that Lucasfilm and Patty Jenkins have been experiencing these same consistent issues, but the fact that Rogue Squadron was pulled from the release schedule entirely doesn’t inspire any confidence. If the sailing was smooth for this film behind the scenes, then Lucasfilm would likely have been parading Jenkins around at Star Wars Celebration and D23 in order to put a damper on all the talk of their troubles on the film side of things. With the removal of Rogue Squadron from Disney’s calendar, the next Star Wars film isn’t officially set for release until 2025. While that could still end up being Rogue Squadron, Lucasfilm has also been developing two other films, specifically with director Taika Waititi and Marvel producer Kevin Feige. Both of those films, however, also appear to still be in the very early stages of development, even though they were announced around the same time as Rogue Squadron.

A Star Wars fighter pilot film sounds like a sure-fire hit, especially coming off the astounding success of Top Gun: Maverick earlier this summer. So one would hope that Lucasfilm would really keep at this film and try to get it off the ground, even if Jenkins doesn’t end up directing it. However, there has been nothing but bad news for this film since it was announced. While there is always a chance that Rogue Squadron could end up seeing the light of day at some point, it doesn’t look like it will be anytime soon. And, if the movie does get made, it’s appearing increasingly unlikely that Jenkins will be the one to direct it.

Star Wars has found immense success through its new streaming shows on Disney+. The Mandalorian has been hailed as one of the best Star Wars stories since the original trilogy, Obi-Wan Kenobi was one of the biggest streaming hits of the summer, and Andor is currently drumming up a lot of attention for itself. With shows such as Ahsoka and The Acolyte coming next year, in addition to new seasons of The Mandalorian and Andor, Lucasfilm seems pretty content to let the Star Wars brand exist solely on Disney+ for now. Considering the divisive nature of the franchise’s previous cinematic outings, when Star Wars does come back to the big screen, it will need to be in a big new way that gets people excited again. A one-off story like Rogue Squadron might not have the necessary juice to be the grand cinematic reintroduction the brand’s film division needs right now.