‘Star Wars: Rogue Squadron’: Fans Want a Story That Takes Place After ‘The Rise of Skywalker’
For the first time since Disney purchased Star Wars from George Lucas, the future of the big-screen saga is largely shrouded in mystery. The sequel trilogy finished in 2019, and after the relative failure of Solo, the company tinkered with its future releases. However, when the company announced a slew of new titles for the coming years, many fans were excited about Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, in particular.
What is ‘Rogue Squadron’? When will it take place?
Rogue Squadron is still early on in the planning phase, but ScreenRant managed to track down some intriguing details. The film was announced at the D23 Expo in December of 2020, with Wonder Woman’s Patty Jenkins at the helm. Harkening back to her days as a military brat, Jenkins spoke about how she wanted to make the film a love letter to air combat.
Little is known about the plot and characters, but the name harkens to a crew of fighters who fought alongside Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy. It’s played a prominent role in several comics, books, and other canonical fares since Luke Skywalker assembled the team in the first movie. Fans of the films, however, might best recognize them for their role in Rogue One. While the origins of the crew are well-known to the Star Wars faithful, some fans are curious about where it will fit within the larger universe.
Can ‘Rogue Squadron’ appease the fans?
As with all things Star Wars, Rogue Squadron set the internet ablaze with speculation about how it fits into the greater universe. With the Disney canon growing every day, fans want to see something that pays homage to what came before it and feels like its own thing inside the greater Star Wars galaxy.
Over on Reddit, u/persistentinquiry sees this as an ample opportunity to take the story that JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson told in the recent trilogy, tie it back to the original movies, and give fans something solely unique as it veers away from the standard fare and characters.
“My dream is for this to be immediately after TROS and about the last stand of the First Order on Coruscant. The story could be that after they lost on Exegol, the remaining members of the Supreme Council retreated back to the old Imperial throne world and prepared to mount one final desperate push to hold back the tide of revolutions. Obviously then, it would likely be the job of Rogue Squadron to play a key role in the liberation of Coruscant,” they wrote.
Some fans want to see something different, but others like u/grntplmr see the film to take the shortcomings of the recent trilogy. After all, a proper script can both bolster supplemental stories and fill in some blanks and let it exist apart from the Skywalker saga.
“I’m of the mind that the only way to ‘heal’ the ST era is to surround it with good content, and this being set post [The Rise of Skywalker] would be a solid step in that direction. Show us this brave new world they all fought for without any Empire/FO involvement. Have the Rogues be going up against warlords and ideologues that are trying to broker power now that the FO is gone and the Republic has been crippled if still victorious,” they wrote.
Now, they need to wait and see.
When will ‘Rogue Squadron’ come out?
According to Collider, fans will have to wait a while for Jenkins’ project. The film is scheduled to film at the end of 2021 at the soonest, with a target release in 2023, depending on how production goes. Disney has done a remarkable job keeping details under wrap about its projects, and Squadron isn’t likely to be different. As Jenkins and company plan the film, however, she has to consider what people want. Otherwise, it could be another Solo.
