Dave Filoni Discusses His STAR WARS Movie Which Will Conclude The Story He Started Telling Years Ago
Last week it was 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. While I’m very excited about this, I’m also a little sad that all of the stories for these characters will be coming to an end. But, maybe it won’t really end!
During an interview with Filoni after the presentation at Star Wars Celebration, the filmmaker was asked about his movie and what the singular thread weaving the varied stories together was. He responded, saying:
“On a base level, I would just say the coming conflict, the growing idea that the empire wasn’t as defeated as a lot of people want to believe and that the remnant is out there. We saw that from the very beginning with The Mandalorian and how Giancarlo’s [Esposito] character Gideon was plotting. There are always people that are willing to undermine something that the Republic is trying to build and put back on its feet.
“I grew up with a lot of stories in the expanding universe that were exploring what happened after Return of the Jedi. There has been this, for fans, idea that there was a new Republic and a remnant Empire and the conflict persisted after Return of the Jedi, even though the heroes won and were more in control. What did that control look like? And since Force Awakens is 30 years on out from Return of the Jedi, we have room then to tell another story. That’s what I’m coalescing into this time period.”
The story, which he started telling years ago has been quite an epic journey and it’s exciting to know that it’s going to lead to a huge scale conflict. Filoni previously teased that a “big event” was coming, and obviously, this movie is what the whole thing is leading to. He said:
"Well, from a certain point of view, it could. It could build to a climactic thing and The Mandalorian could still go on. It's not necessarily an either/or, is it? It's an interesting way to think about it. I tend to think, as we've been working on the The Mandalorian and then writing Ahsoka, and then Jon Watts came in with Skeleton Crew, there is an entire time period that is post-Return of the Jedi. And I look at that time period, which before The Force Awakens, is around 30 years of time. When you look at the original trilogy, it's a much less significant amount of time that those three movies take place in. And so, what I like is that we're really building very slowly an ecosystem of characters and politics and events in the post-Return of the Jedi time period. And that may or may not expand in a bigger way as we add more shows to it and add more characters to it.
“I think that the reality of there being a big event in this time period is very real, is all I would say to that. But yes, if Jon wanted to keep making Mandalorian stories, as long as he does not get bumped off in said titanic event, then they, I suppose, could continue. There doesn't seem to be any lack of interest in Grogu and Mando, that's for sure."
As for when all of this come to an end, Jon Favreau has said that he’s having a blast telling these stories and he has no plans to end it soon. But, the movie may be several years away so there are plenty of stories to tell until that happens and maybe that film will set up new stories. Maybe that film will end up being another trilogy!