Star Wars‘ return to movie theaters looks to be far, far away.
Disney has officially removed the Star Wars film Rogue Squadron from its release schedule, meaning there are now no new movies in the franchise slated until 2025.
Described as a fighter pilot film directed by Wonder Woman‘s Patty Jenkins, Rogue Squadron was scheduled to be released in December 2023, marking the first new Star Wars movie since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. But Disney released an updated schedule on Thursday, and the film no longer has a release date at all.
This comes almost two years after Rogue Squadron was announced with great fanfare, and a teaser video starring Jenkins herself, during a Disney presentation for investors in December 2020. Now, it’s not clear if the film will even still be made.
The move was not a huge surprise given there was no indication Rogue Squadron was anywhere close to going into production. Yet it added to a growing sense of uncertainty about when, or how, Star Wars will re-establish itself as a movie franchise. Disney’s current schedule has an untitled Star Wars film scheduled for December 2025 and another for December 2027, but there have been no announcements about what those movies will be.
In May, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy suggested the next Star Wars film may be one directed by Taika Waititi. It’s also not clear when Waititi’s movie will be released, and in July, he said he’s “still trying to figure out what the story is.” For now, Star Wars has maintained a consistent presence as a television franchise on Disney+, and its latest series, Andor, launches next week.
But for at least a few more years, the Force won’t be with movie theaters.