How Rogue Squadron Almost Became a Disney+ Series Revealed

Imagine a Star Wars project that kept shape-shifting like a ship caught in an asteroid field. One minute it's a big-screen flight for Patty Jenkins; the next it's a streaming serial meant to orbit the same era as The Mandalorian. And then—silence.

Rogue Squadron began life as a straightforward promise from Lucasfilm: a fresh cinematic entry after The Rise of Skywalker. Announced in December 2020, Patty Jenkins—fresh off Wonder Woman—was attached to direct a film set to introduce a new generation of starfighter pilots and slated for a holiday 2023 release. Fast forward through delays and internal reshuffles, and the project was quietly shelved.

New reporting from Knight Edge Media paints a fuller picture: Rogue Squadron didn’t just stall. It underwent multiple reinventions during development, one of the most striking being a pivot into a Disney+ series. That third incarnation reportedly would've launched alongside Mandalorian-era dramas, with Rick Famuyiwa lined up to direct and Rina McClendon serving as showrunner and executive producer. McClendon’s credits include advisory work on Obi‑Wan Kenobi and early writing room contributions for Damon Lindelof’s Star Wars scripts, and she reportedly helped shape a draft of a New Jedi Order arc before Justin Britt‑Gibson joined.

The streaming version carried a working title—Ghost Tracker—and began development in late 2022 with Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni attached as producers. For a moment it looked like Lucasfilm was trying to fold the story into what fans loosely call the Mandoverse: that informal tapestry of shows around The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka and Skeleton Crew. With Rangers of the New Republic already dropped by late 2022, Rogue Squadron’s makeover could have been a ready-made replacement—at least on paper.

But the Ghost Tracker era didn’t survive either. The series iteration collapsed in development, joining the long list of Star Wars projects that have been rethought, postponed, or quietly abandoned as Lucasfilm shifted priorities toward live-action streaming stories rather than theatrical tentpoles.

Before any of that, there was a different Rogue Squadron altogether. J.D. Dillard had been attached to write and direct a version of the film, working with Matt Owens as far back as 2018. Dillard later described his concept as inspired by childhood hours spent playing the TIE Fighter video game and by his father’s aviation background—little personal anchors that were meant to ground a space-war yarn in lived experience. He would leave the project, then Patty Jenkins’ version would be introduced in December 2020 in a memorable reveal video where Jenkins explained how the movie’s pilot focus felt personal to her, even stepping into a rebel flight suit and toward an X‑Wing for the cameras.

That Jenkins-directed film never reached production. By the time development stopped moving forward, Disney had already been shifting significant resources into its streaming slate. The company’s strategy favored serialized, character-driven Star Wars stories that could expand the universe over multiple seasons rather than single theatrical events.

Where does that leave the Mandoverse? The answer is both simple and messy. The theatrical release of The Mandalorian and Grogu gave the Mandoverse its first big-screen outing after The Rise of Skywalker, and projects like Ahsoka continue that thread—season two of Ahsoka is due to pick up the storylines that streaming launched. Meanwhile, Lucasfilm is not abandoning tales of pilots: in 2026 it will release Starfighter, directed by Shawn Levy, which promises another take on starfighter crews, this time conceived explicitly as a cinema feature.

Rogue Squadron’s zigzag through formats is a reminder of how fluid franchise planning can be—especially for a universe as sprawling as Star Wars. Scripts get rewritten. Showrunners arrive and leave. Ideas migrate from screen to streaming and back again. Fans notice each shuffle and speculate. Creators adapt.

In the end, Rogue Squadron’s many near-misses may still prove useful. Elements from its aborted drafts could resurface, braided into other shows or films. Or they might linger as the stuff of what-ifs and behind-the-scenes lore. Either way, the story of Rogue Squadron’s development is now part of the larger, ongoing conversation about how Star Wars chooses to grow—one project at a time.