By way of Hollywood Reporter, Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins was to have begun shooting the next Star Wars film Rogue Squadron in 2022, with an expected release date of December 22, 2023.

That's no longer happening.

The official word is that Patty is too busy and can't make this work next year, but Hollywood Reporter notes that the only other projects she's attached to are Cleopatra with Paramount and Wonder Woman 3 with Warner Bros. Originally she would have worked on Wonder Woman 3 after Rogue Squadron.

Hollywood Reporter lay out the dots but don't connect them. Is she really too busy?

Cleopatra doesn't have a release date but Paramount was crazy keen to get it into cinemas and their deal with Patty included an accelerated timetable. Any delays there could legitimately require increased focus from her to move things along.

Have there been Cleopatra delays? We don't know.

After announcing it and that she would be teaming up again with Wonder Woman's Gal Gadot in the titular role, there hasn't been much press. Other than criticism of that casting choice.

Also in the interim, Wonder Woman 1984 launched and it wasn't anywhere near as good as its predecessor. Critics and viewers agree on this one.

Patty was one of the earlier female directors helming a big budget film and that film was brilliant. For a time both she and Gal were regarded as bone fide Wonder Women, and possibly Paramount were intent on rushing Cleopatra to the box office to cash in on their popularity.

With both the casting controversy and Wonder Woman 1984's subsequent mediocrity, Hollywood execs might be re-evaluating earlier choices.

Disney has a reputation for championing diversity and might not want an association with racial controversy. Additionally under their ownership Star Wars box office performance has trended downward sharply. They're not in a good position to take any risks with their next title.

Hollywood Reporter also notes that Rogue Squadron's ETA hasn't changed. While a new ETA would be impossible to determine at this point, studios can temporarily remove films their release schedule and they haven't done that.

Does Patty Suck?

We don't think so.

A lot of things - pretty much everything - has to go right for a film to be superb.

The 2017 Wonder Woman is superb so Patty Jenkins is obviously a good director.

The sequel not so much and that's probably down to an inferior script, which also has Patty's name on it.

That doesn't mean that she can't direct but box office performance is always partly driven by viewer expectation based on previous works and she is probably regarded as much less bankable now than she was a few years ago.

[ Main Image: Star Wars: Rogue Squadron poster. Credit: Disney via IMDb.com. ]

References

BBC News. Gal Gadot defends Cleopatra casting after 'whitewashing' controversy. BBC.

Kit, Boris (November 8, 2021). Patty Jenkins ‘Star Wars’ Movie ‘Rogue Squadron’ Delayed (Exclusive). Hollywood Reporter. 

Fleming, Mike (October 11, 2020). ‘Cleopatra’ Epic To Re-Team ‘Wonder Woman’s Gal Gadot & Patty Jenkins; Paramount Wins Wild Auction. Deadline. 

WIkipedia. List of Star Wars films. (viewed November 9, 2021)