Dave Filoni is no stranger to Star Wars, but he is as important as ever to the franchise.
Kathleen Kennedy, who was George Lucas’s hand-picked successor to run Lucasfilm in 2012, stepped down earlier this year and was replaced by Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan as co-Presidents. And though it might sound contradictory at first, I truly believe that Filoni at the helm of the franchise represents both the biggest reason for optimism, and the biggest question mark, about the future of Star Wars – at the very same time.
Or, put another way, I think Filoni could either be the franchise’s greatest asset or its greatest liability – and the direction of Star Wars rests on how he handles it.
Why Filoni could be Star Wars’s greatest asset
George Lucas hired Dave Filoni in 2005 to develop the animated series The Clone Wars, which was released in 2008. In this capacity as showrunner, Filoni worked very closely with Lucas, developing a widely-held reputation as being Lucas’s apprentice. It certainly does seem to be the case that there is no one more qualified to tell stories in Lucas’s universe than Filoni, that there is no one who understands the way Lucas thought about things like the Force, the Jedi, the galaxy than Filoni, that there is no one who is a truer spiritual successor to the maker himself than Filoni.
What this means is that Filoni gets Star Wars on a very deep level, and knows how to tap into those themes in storytelling. That is why the animated shows, like The Clone Wars and Rebels, feature some of the most poignant explorations of the Force we’ve ever seen. That is why Filoni’s explanation of the Duel of the Fates, in the docu-series on the making of The Mandalorian, went viral. That is why some of Filoni’s own creations, from Ahsoka Tano to the Spectres, are some of the best Star Wars characters ever introduced.
He is as invested in the franchise as anyone, and he understands the franchise as well as anyone. He doesn’t just get the technical aspects of Star Wars, and doesn’t just look at it all through the lens of nostalgia, like so many filmmakers tend to with the franchise. Filoni looks at the spiritual themes of Star Wars and considers how to explore them, further them, and, when needed, challenge them. There is no question that Dave Filoni is responsible for some of the very best Star Wars stories ever told, and Lucasfilm is being led into the future by the guy who understands Star Wars better than anyone – by the true apprentice to George Lucas.
That’s no small thing. And it means there is the potential for some truly great Star Wars stories to come.
Why Filoni could be Star Wars’s greatest liability
But these very things that make Filoni so compelling also raise lots of questions when he’s put in the position as the head of the studio. While his storytelling and character creations have been tremendous, he has also shown a tendency to over-rely on these very things – like how Ahsoka Tano seems to pop up in everything he touches. She’s a great character (one of the franchise’s best), but Filoni can tap into this too much. This leads to questions about how much the franchise will actually be able to expand under his leadership. For example, this is the franchise that can have both Andor and Skeleton Crew, both Rebels and Shadow Lord, both Rogue One and The Mandalorian and Grogu. It needs to be able to do both. Will Filoni let it? He has largely been a storyteller, with little experience as an executive or a producer. How will he work with different filmmakers who have different visions? Would he be comfortable with producing something like Andor? He has very little experience in any of this, which is part of the reason Lynwen Brennan is running the studio alongside him.
But the questions, I think, go beyond that. While the quality of content being produced can be debated, I don’t think it is debatable that the fan engagement and experience has gotten considerably worse over the Disney era of Star Wars – and, honestly, Filoni (and his buddy, Jon Favreau) are at the center of why. Lucas had his faults, but he was a brilliant visionary whose efforts managed to pull fans into things in ways unheard of in the industry. Take Star Wars Celebration, for example. It was accessible to many, especially as the internet and social media continued to grow. Panels were live-streamed, trailers were launched, and the excitement from the fandom was off-the-charts. In recent years, fans have received mostly crumbs – and that’s been mostly Filoni and Favreau’s doing. They are notorious for not wanting fans to know or see much of anything, unless they’re in person at a convention. It’s an isolating experience for the fandom that stunts hype from reaching levels once common for Star Wars, and I’m honestly not sure Dave Filoni is going to be able to fix this. It would require him to admit that the way he’s done things isn’t always the most helpful.
The point is this: Dave Filoni is a great storyteller. As great of a Star Wars storyteller as there is. But that isn’t the same thing as being a studio executive. Will he be able to put aside some of his own preferences and opinions and characters and oversee a diversity of storytelling and genres? Will he be able to actually grow the fandom rather than simply tease it? These are questions that, I think, could determine the success of Star Wars in the years to come.
I am optimistic. Filoni is the most logical choice to lead Lucasfilm, and I’m glad he is. But how he handles things moving forward will be extremely interesting to watch.
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