Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau Explain Their STAR WARS Movie Will Be a Mash-Up of Different Sources and Characters

During Star Wars Celebration this year, Lucasfilm announced that Dave Filoni would be directing a big Star Wars movie that will “close out” the interconnected stories that are being told in The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka. This is an exciting project for fans of these Star Wars shows that is described as being a “New Republic vs. Imperial Remnant” story, and while we wait to see what exactly it will be, Filoni and Jon Favreau are talking about how the movie will be a mashup of different sources and characters and how they are trying to figure out what characters they want to use.

While on EW's Dagobah Dispatch podcast, Filoni said: "We're in the right area code. We are definitely in the right space. I think it's going to be a clamoring of characters saying, 'How do I get in this picture?' And that's what Jon and I have been figuring out."

When talking about their growing Mandalorian universe and how this journey has played out for the creative team, Filoni said: "I think for a long time, as I've learned to work in this galaxy, it's a long play, and if things go right, you get to do more of your story. Things I think have broken in a good way for us, and people have enjoyed the characters that we've been making. So certain opportunities came up the further we went along."

When talking about the setting for these stories being set five years after the events of Return of the Jedi, Filoni feels it's the perfect gap of time to play in and says: "Growing up with the original [films], Return of the Jedi was the end. But then you're always like: But what happens next? And then when Episode VII was set so many years later, when I was a kid, I never would've thought it would've been that much later, but it made sense. It created an opening where you go, 'Wow so a lot of the things that we knew before are probably in there. How do we excavate that?'"

Favreau then talked about being inspired by the different sources they are drawing from for the movie saying: "When I was younger, we didn't have movies, but there were comic books, there were novels, things that are encompassed in the [expanded universe] or Legends. Clearly, there are decisions that have to be made to fit it all together, but for us, I think one thing we're in agreement about is that the characters — as special as they are — the story has to drive what characters are."

Then there’s the fun aspect of creating a big story like this and figuring out what characters to include! Favreau said: "We joke that it's like we're playing with action figures, like, 'What's in the box? Let's play with what's in the box!' And that's what you do when you're playing and you're a kid."

As for what action figures will be taken out of the box to play with, Favreau explains: "As we are getting deeper and deeper into this, you start to have to really map things out and figure out what that story is, and then have those characters fulfill what their growth cycle is and what their mythic hero's journey is. Those things have to fit together well. Otherwise, it won't feel like Star Wars."

Favreau went on to say: “That's always been George's base. He's a student of Joseph Campbell. How does it fit into the narrative that has the hero's journey? And so as we have more and more characters line up, you have to figure out how those characters are arcing and if it feels ultimately like a Star Wars story."

Favreau and Filoni have such a strong sense of storytelling, and they have proven to be the best things to happen to the Star Wars franchise in years. I have no doubt the movie that they develop together is going to be an amazing Star Wars film!