The Star Wars franchise is known for making enormous franchise-wide decisions on very short notice. If one film underperforms, fans should no longer be surprised to see the entire corporate strategy shift. This cancelation, however, may represent a shift compelled by success rather than failure.
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For all intents and purposes, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron has crashed and burned. The film was among the most hotly anticipated pieces of the long-suffering galaxy far, far away. The franchise has turned primarily to Disney Plus streaming efforts for the past few years, but many fans still want Star Wars to return to the medium that made it successful. The last trilogy, though financially successful on a level that borders on absurdity, provoked non-stop backlash and cemented Star Wars fans as one of the worst mobs on the internet. With that in mind, Star Wars has stayed in a safe place between trilogies. There are plenty of interesting projects on the horizon, but the sudden removal of the Rogue Squadron film has caused a crisis of faith for many fans.
Rogue Squadron, not to be confused with the N64 game of the same name, would’ve been an action film about the high-flying X-Wing pilots in the Rebel Alliance. The tale was intended to introduce a crop of new characters, a team of brash young hot-shots struggling to get their wings and join the epic space battles. Patty Johnson was set to direct, late of both Wonder Woman films. She was inspired by her father’s time flying F4 Phantom II Fighter-Bombers in Vietnam. Anyone paying attention would know exactly what they were in for if this film were to come to theaters. It’s Top Gun but set in Star Wars. Any director, screenwriter, or producer should’ve been able to walk into Disney’s offices, say those words, and walk out with hundreds of millions of dollars. This year, the long-awaited Top Gun sequel is climbing the ranks of best-selling films of all time while enjoying universally incredible reviews, and Star Wars just ditched their chance to do their version.
For all the gross cash-in stuff that Star Wars has done over the years, it’s not usually the type to play follow the leader. The franchise doesn’t typically release genre pastiche of other material in an attempt to capture some of their fame. The overwhelming majority of Star Wars content has been within the same science fantasy genre. When they divert somewhat from that genre, they are rewarded massively. The Mandalorian is the most uncontroversially beloved piece of the Star Wars universe to be released in decades. Rogue Squadron could’ve done something similar, by moving away from the characters and storylines that fans are sick of and towards something new within the same galaxy. Introducing new characters and exploring new corners of the franchise is clearly the best path forward, and Disney seems to have learned that lesson.
The cancelation is still unconfirmed at time of writing, and the reason for the removal of the film from Disney’s schedule has been left unclear. The best guess of most fans lays the blame at the feet of director Patty Jenkins. Creative clashes between Jenkins and franchise lead Kathleen Kennedy have made the news in the past. Those issues, along with scheduling conflicts as a result of Jenkins’ work on Wonder Woman 3 and Cleopatra, have led to the project being delayed in the past. If the project was scuttled as a result of behind-the-scenes conflict, then it takes some blame off the myopic studio that canceled a sure thing. However, the nature of the cancelation and Disney’s unwillingness to bet on any cinematic project for the franchise suggests an unfortunate doubling down and the refusal to learn the right lesson.
Disney seems eager to make more and more projects entirely in-house, by leaving them entirely on their Disney Plus service. Movies cost a lot of money, set expectations a lot higher, and allow theaters to take a bit of the cash for their success. Disney seems very eager to take a lot of projects that could be good movies and stretch them out into 6-to-8-hour series. If they’re committing to that direction for the franchise, Rogue Squadron would be the first logical cut. It’s impossible to know at this time, but it’s certainly a messy time for the franchise.
Whether Rogue Squadron went down due to creative disputes or as a consequence of corporate direction-shifting, it’s a shame to see it die. After the disastrous cancelation of Batgirl and the apparent slow death of Warner Bros. that it heralded in, watching Disney possibly cancel another hotly anticipated project is troubling. Disney had something ready to fly, and, for one reason or another, it might decide that it’s more profitable to leave it grounded.
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