Rogue Squadron screenwriter reveals new details about the canceled Star Wars movie

Amidst a Lucasfilm shakeup, the future of a highly anticipated film remains uncertain

Director Patty Jenkins’ planned Star Wars movie Rogue Squadron has been in development for… a while. After an initial announcement in 2020, Variety reported in 2023 that the movie had been shelved, but in the years that followed, persistent rumors seem to suggest the fighter pilot film isn’t as dead as we thought. The news of Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy’s departure only complicates things further, raising questions about the status of the many Star Wars projects currently in development.

While chatting with screenwriter Matthew Robinson about his upcoming sci-fi comedy movie directed by Gore Verbinski, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (more on that in another article soon), we had to ask about Rogue Squadron, which he wrote alongside Jenkins. Despite the secrecy typically shrouding any unreleased Star Wars project, Robinson offered up a surprisingly unvarnished answer about both the status and concept of his script.

“I had a great time writing it,” he said. “Patty Jenkins is one of my favorite artists in the world. I think she's absolutely brilliant. We had a great time working together. I don't currently know what Lucasfilm wants to do with it. They're in a pretty big state of flux at the moment, after Kathleen [Kennedy] leaving, and who knows what the future holds for them theatrically.”

Robinson then touched on why, as a longtime Star Wars fan, Rogue Squadron was so important to him. "It was a great thrill to write that, and especially to work with Patty, who made it a very personal story,” he said. “It was very much a movie about fighter pilots. Her father was a fighter pilot. It was very personal to her, and we were trying to tell a really great personal story about fighter pilots and Rogue Squadron pilots in the Star Wars universe. I think we did a great job with it, and I really hope one day we get to see a version of that."

Robinson also addressed the current state of the Star Wars universe, saying Lucasfilm is “doing fine on TV.” That certainly tracks, especially if Grogu and The Mandalorian — Star Wars’ next theatrical release and a direct expansion of the Disney Plus series — is any indication. However, the franchise is still in dire need of a new story that’s able to rekindle the flames of dying interest, given the lackluster conclusion that was The Rise of Skywalker. Perhaps in another timeline, Rogue Squadron could have been the movie to reignite the fandom.

In 2020, StarWars.com described the movie’s story as the introduction of “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.” Rogue Squadron sounds like it could have been a familiar yet refreshing look into the universe, from a perspective only teased during the original trilogy.

---

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die hits theaters on Feb. 13