When it comes to “Star Wars” TV success, there isn’t anyone working at Lucasfilm that can rival Dave Filoni. While Jon Favreau might have found success with the live-action series “The Mandalorian,” Filoni has been turning in quality ‘Star Wars’ content on the small screen for over a decade. And as he recently said goodbye to ‘The Clone Wars,’ it appears that the future is still bright for the filmmaker. But don’t expect him to spill the beans on what he’s working on next.
Speaking to Deadline, Filoni talked about ‘The Clone Wars’ and future projects within the ‘Star Wars’ universe. But outside of some talk about Season 2 of “The Mandalorian,” Filoni isn’t going to spoil the upcoming surprises Lucasfilm has in store for fans, including any possible animated series spinning off from ‘Rebels’ or an Ahsoka Tano live-action series.
“I think that there’s always potential for stories that involve the characters from ‘Rebels,’ which is maybe a better way to put it,” said Filoni about the possibility of new ‘Rebels’ animated content. “They’ve all earned their place in the galaxy, so to speak, so I’m sure there’s some more of them to do.”
When asked about Ahsoka Tano outside of her scheduled appearance in “The Mandalorian” Season 2, Filoni is keeping things close to the vest. You didn’t really think he would announce a ‘Ahsoka Tano’ spin-off series right now, did you?
“I couldn’t speak to anything at this point,” he said. “I have a lot of ideas and I’m really fortunate that I’ve had the opportunity now to work in both animation and live-action, so just getting that exposure is interesting.”
Filoni added, “Right now I’m really enjoying the collaboration I have with Jon Favreau on ‘Mandalorian.’ We’re having a great time making that show, and you know, we’ll see. But first, before I decide where it’s going to go, I need to decide on a story I want to tell, and invest my time in, because it’s a lot. I mean, there’s a lot riding on everything ‘Star Wars,’ especially for me personally, being here so long, I want to make sure I get it right. I’m learning, you know.”
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As for his involvement in Season 2 of “The Mandalorian,” it appears that he won’t be spending as much time behind the camera as he did for the previous batch of episodes. Filoni will only helm one episode for Season 2, versus two that he did in the first outing. But he revealed that he actually wrote and directed the episode that he is directing, a change of pace from last season.
Ultimately, when it comes to what makes a good “Star Wars” spin-off series or film, Filoni thinks it should be less about what fans want and more about what stories filmmakers are excited to tell.
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“I always felt if you’re just chasing what fans are going to like or not like, I don’t think you’ll ever get done,” said the filmmaker. “And really early on when I worked here, when I first started on ‘Clone Wars,’ I thought, if I can’t make this show in a way that’s natural to me, that George [Lucas] likes, then I probably shouldn’t be doing it. I would be wrong for it, and that would be fine, but I had to take my crack at doing it off of what he taught me and see if it worked, and so far so good. Fifteen years later, I’m still here, so I guess I get it right most of the time, I hope.”