Star Wars: Rogue Squadron Still Sports 2023 Release Date Despite Delay Reports

Reports about filmmaker Patty Jenkins' Star Wars: Rogue Squadron being delayed have been circulating for months, and while no official start date for the project has emerged, Disney released just last week its slate of upcoming release dates, which still sees Rogue Squadron expected to land in theaters on December 22, 2023. Surely this will cause some confusion among fans, as even without reports of a delay, knowing that such a massive film in the galaxy far, far away is less than two years away and there's no reported production start will surely cause speculation about what's really going on with the film, if it's actually heading into production soon, or if Disney doesn't yet know how to proceed with the project.

The first reports of the film facing delays came from The Hollywood Reporter back in November of 2021, which had noted that the film would no longer shoot in 2022 due to Jenkins' growing slate of projects. Given the ongoing complications the entire entertainment industry is coping with due to the coronavirus pandemic, a number of films have continued to earn release date delays for a variety of reasons, so it wouldn't come as much of a surprise for Lucasfilm to officially push the film back. Additionally, with Jenkins reportedly prioritizing a third Wonder Woman film, it's difficult to imagine a scenario in which Rogue Squadron could still open on its planned 2023 release date.

Rogue Squadron isn't the only film that Star Wars fans can expect on the horizon, as Kevin Feige is developing a film, as is Taika Waititi. The statuses of both of those films are relatively unknown, with it being possible that Disney doesn't want to scrap this December 2023 release date entirely and potentially wants to allow for another Star Wars project to secure that date. 

Follow-up reports about the status of Rogue Squadron, however, paint a slightly different picture of what the holdup might be, with Jenkins reportedly growing frustrated by the collaborative process with the studio.

"That's not unusual, of course, but it's a laughably recurring problem at Lucasfilm under president Kathleen Kennedy, say agents: Top filmmakers are dying to make a Star Wars movie -- until they sign on and experience the micromanagement and plot-point-by-committee process," former The Hollywood Reporter editor Matthew Belloni shared last December.

He added, "It happened to the Game of Thrones guys, David Benioff and Dan Weiss, who were hired to create a new trilogy but bailed. It also happened to Rian Johnson, writer and director of 2017's The Last Jedi, whose own planned trilogy was shelved. Jenkins wasn't willing to dick around, and she has other projects, notably Wonder Woman 3 at Warner Bros., where she enjoys more creative freedom."

Stay tuned for details on the future of Star Wars: Rogue Squadron.

Are you looking forward to Rogue Squadron? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!