Star Wars fans have been waiting for this moment to happen for years. Dave Filoni, creator of Star Wars Rebels, The Mandalorian, and Star Wars: Ahsoka, has been given the title of Chief Creative Officer at Lucasfilm. He confirmed the news to Vanity Fair earlier this week.
Filoni has been the heir apparent ever since he studied under George Lucas. Fans have generally been very happy with the work Filoni has done, which respects the groundwork laid by Lucas while forging new storylines that take Star Wars into the future.
The promotion will put Filoni in the early process of all Star Wars-related projects, rather than coming in later in an advisory capacity…
“In the past, in a lot of projects, I would be brought into it, I would see it after it had already developed a good ways”, Filoni said.
There’s a lot going on in Filoni’s corner of the galaxy. Not only does he have his own feature film in the works that will combine the storylines of his various series, but there’s hope of a second season of Ahsoka. That’s going to be a bitter pill to swallow, as the first season featured late actor Ray Stevenson as ex-Jedi Baylan Skoll, and picking up on that will be tough…
“Obviously, there’s a story there,” he told VF. “We’re in a wait-and-see pattern at this point. But I’m glad the conversation is about Ray and how great he was…. I used to have mini debates with him and say, ‘Ray, you’re the villain here.’ And he’d be like, ‘I don’t think so.’ I was like, ‘I know you don’t think so, but you are. I love that you’re playing it like you’re not.’ Which is exactly the way Baylan thinks.”
Ahsoka star Rosario Dawson seems confident the series will not only get a second season, but that Filoni is already working on it…
“I mean, they’ve not said anything officially, but I remember when we were at Star Wars Celebration in London, and they were like, ‘We’re giving Dave a movie!’” Rosario Dawson said in an interview for the story. “And I was like, ‘I kind of feel like that means we’re probably going to get a second season.’ For a while now, and especially now with the strike and everything, no one can say anything. But he did say he was working on an outline. So, we’ll see.”