The latest rumor circling Star Wars is that The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson might still be working on Star Wars and that he might secretly be writing Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron movie.
Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins was announced to be the director of the upcoming Rogue Squadron film at Disney Investor Day 2020.
Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy made the announcement declaring, “And to close today, I couldn’t be more excited that our next Star Wars feature film will be directed by Patty Jenkins.”
“Patty, director of the Wonder Woman franchise will bring her inspired vision to Rogue Squadron. This story will introduce a new generation of starfighter pilots as they earn their wings and risk their lives in a boundary pushing, high speed thrill ride,” Kennedy added.
She concluded, “The legend of Rogue Squadron has been long beloved by Star Wars fans and will move us into a future era of the galaxy. Rogue Squadron will be released in theaters Christmas of 2023.”
Following this announcement, Patty Jenkins spoke with Collider about the upcoming film, where she denied to reveal who was writing the script, but seemingly implied it was a man.
Jenkins stated, “I want him to have his own proper announcement, so I’m going to wait until that comes out.”
She then went on to provide an update on where she and this unnamed writer were in the writing process.
Jenkins explained, “We’re very far into the — we’re finishing the treatment basically, which is pretty big. So it ends up being like where you’re fairly close to a well-along screenplay by the time I’m done with the treatment in my process. So yeah, we’ve been working on it for awhile. It’s going great. I’m super excited about it. I’m super excited about the story.”
In a video posted to Twitter, Jenkins describes Rogue Squadron as “the greatest fighter pilot movie of all time.”
— Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) December 10, 2020
The gossip concerning Johnson being the unannounced and secret script writer on Rogue Squadron comes from Inside The Magic.
Writer Rebekah Barton speculates that the reason the script writer wasn’t announced is because it could be Rian Johnson.
She writes, “One potential reason for not sharing the screenwriter’s name is that it might be Rian Johnson.”
As for why they might not want to announce Johnson, Barton explains, “The Last Jedi garnered so much backlash — for a wide variety of reasons, from fans disliking certain characters to loathing the storyline — that it wouldn’t be surprising if Disney and Lucasfilm decided it was best to not bring Johnson’s name up at an event that was meant to get fans excited about the future of Star Wars.”
While Barton details that even she would not be happy with Johnson returning to write the script for Rogue Squadron, she claims “it actually tracks with what we know about his trilogy.”
She points to the fact that Johnson’s previously announced Star Wars trilogy has not officially been cancelled by Lucasfilm and Star Wars. And that Johnson has maintained in public statements that he’s still working with Lucasfilm.
Johnson told Entertainment Tonight back in October 2019, “I have no update at all. But I’m still working with Lucasfilm on it, and they’re figuring out when they do what and everything.”
What do you make of this latest gossip? Do you think Rian Johnson is this unannounced script writer for Rogue Squadron?