It’s only been one year since the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but fans have been eagerly awaiting any and all news with regards to the next new Star Wars movie. Previously, former Disney CEO Bob Iger said Star Wars was “taking a breather” on the big screen while The Mandalorian continued to dominate the streaming service Disney+. But Disney did confirm that a Star Wars movie would be hitting theaters in 2023, and now we know exactly what that is.
Patty Jenkins, the director behind the acclaimed drama Monster as well as Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984, was recently announced as directing a new Star Wars movie called Rogue Squadron. And now Disney has confirmed that Rogue Squadron will be released in theaters on December 22, 2023 – just in time for Christmas.
That’s in keeping with the Christmas release dates that served the other recent Star Wars movies so well, which kind of happened by accident. The Force Awakens was originally supposed to be released in May 2015, but when J.J. Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy requested more time to get the film done right, Iger acquiesced and pushed The Force Awakens release date back to December 2015. Every subsequent Star Wars film followed this same formula to massive box office success save for Solo: A Star Wars Story, which was released in May 2018 and fell far short of box office expectations.
Rogue Squadron has a personal connection to Jenkins, whose father was a fighter pilot before he passed away. In a video posted shortly after the announcement, Jenkins shared the emotional story of her father and explained she’s always wanted to make the ultimate fighter pilot movie. And with Rogue Squadron, she intends to do just that.
It’s unclear when Rogue Squadron filming might begin, but it could be as soon as 2021. Studios are currently dealing with a backlog of films and production due to 2020’s major COVID delays, so it’ll be interesting to see if Rogue Squadron shoots early and has a long post-production, or if filming won’t begin until late 2021 or sometime in 2022. Either way, we now have something major to look forward to in 2023.
