Ever since Lucasfilm broke the news last week that it had parted ways with Star Wars: Episode IX director Colin Trevorrow, the Star Wars fan base has been rife with fan castings for Trevorrow’s replacement. The choices have ranged from the predictable (J.J. Abrams, Rian Johnson), to the new (Ava DuVernay), and everyone in between (Steven Spielberg?). Yet, there’s one candidate who fans and the media have largely overlooked: Dave Filoni.
If you’ve only seen the live-action saga films, then you might not know Dave Filoni. However, loyal fans of Star Wars television are well aware of his work as he’s helmed both Star Wars: The Clone Wars and its current successor, Star Wars Rebels. He might not be a conventional choice given his lack of film directing experience, but for Star Wars fans, he’s a prime pick.
Dave Filoni Is George Lucas’s Successor
Thanks to his directorial experience for Star Wars television, Dave Filoni has more than enough to put him on par with rumored Episode IX director contenders like J.J. Abrams. (The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson implied today that he had taken himself out of the running for Episode IX.) Filoni has been with Lucasfilm Animation for 12 years now, having started in 2005 when Star Wars: The Clone Wars first entered production. In a way, Filoni is even more knowledgeable about Star Wars than both Abrams and Johnson.
Not to discredit J.J. or Rian, but the fact of the matter is that unlike them, Dave Filoni has worked under George Lucas’s direct tutelage — and on Star Wars, at that. As supervising director for The Clone Wars, Filoni received extensive mentoring from Lucas, who executive produced the show. After Lucas sold his company to Disney, many of Lucasfilm’s creative leads have turned to Filoni to carry on Lucas’s unique cinematography and visual style for Star Wars. In essence, Dave Filoni is the closest to a George Lucas successor at Lucasfilm, at least on the creative side.
Filoni Can Build a Better Bridge with Star Wars TV
I’ve been saying for a while that the Star Wars films need to do more to integrate material from their counterpart TV shows. While I was pleased with Rogue One‘s inclusion of Saw Gerrera (who George Lucas created and debuted on The Clone Wars), it needs to be the first step — not the last — in building a better bridge between the saga’s television and film properties. Given his preeminent role in forming a home for Star Wars on TV, Filoni should be the person to build that bridge.
The Star Wars fan base has speculated that Grand Admiral Thrawn, the most famous creation of the now-defunct Expanded Universe and the most recent antagonist in Star Wars Rebels, will appear in Episode VIII or Episode IX.
Within the in-universe lore, Thrawn hails from the Unknown Regions, the same place where Supreme Leader Snoke and his cronies created the First Order. That mutual connection could translate into Thrawn’s first live-action appearance. To make that happen, Lucasfilm would need a director with an innate familiarity with the character.
Thrawn Needs an Expert Touch
Thrawn is not the kind of character whom just any film director can handle. The character has been around since 1991 (making him older than me!) when author Timothy Zahn created him as the main villain of Heir to the Empire. More importantly, it would take someone who was involved with crafting Thrawn’s ongoing role on Star Wars Rebels to give him the treatment he deserves on the big screen. And it just so happens that Dave Filoni was one of the creative leads behind Thrawn’s Rebels debut.
Regardless of whether Thrawn will play a role in the live-action films, his character represents the kind of crossover that only a savvy director like Dave Filoni could nail. It’s one thing to be a Star Wars fan — as I’m sure is the case with every director on Lucasfilm’s shortlist for Episode IX — but it’s another matter entirely to have a director who helped create such memorable and enduring characters as Sabine Wren, Ahsoka Tano, and Captain Rex. Having Filoni helm Episode IX means that there’s a greater chance of giving more animated characters the recognition on the big screen that they deserve.
Can Lucasfilm Really Give Episode IX to Filoni?
I hate to say it, but as much as I’d like to see Dave Filoni direct the next Star Wars film, it probably won’t happen due to logistical reasons. Filoni has been hard at work charting the future of Star Wars in animation, having already relinquished his supervising directorial duties on Star Wars Rebels to Justin Ridge. That handover has, in part, allowed Filoni to take on projects like executive producing Forces of Destiny and overseeing the story for Star Wars Blips, both of which have invaded Lucasfilm’s social media presence this year.
There’s also the fact that Filoni and his team are — in all likelihood — already deep into planning the next full-length Star Wars television series. (Last year, Disney–ABC Television Groups revealed it had begun exploring the possibility of another Star Wars animated series.) Due to the fact that the Disney acquisition forced Filoni and the rest of Lucasfilm Animation to end The Clone Wars two seasons early, it’s hard to imagine that Lucasfilm would want to risk any more shakeups in its animation department. And sadly, that’s exactly what would happen if Filoni were to leave animation to direct Episode IX, given how important his role has been on the animation side.
What Has Filoni Worked On?
If you’re looking for a sample of Filoni’s work, Netflix has several instances you can binge-watch — 121 of them, in fact, because that’s how many episodes The Clone Wars ran for. More recently, Filoni helped co-create the current-running Star Wars Rebels, serving as supervising director for the first two seasons and as executive producer for season three onward. Even from the most recent season of Rebels, Filoni personally scripted the Sabine Wren–centric “Trials of the Darksaber” and directed Darth Maul’s end in “Twin Suns,” both of which stand out as two of the most masterful Star Wars stories of all time.
Dave Filoni has worked more on Star Wars than most — if not all — potential replacements for Colin Trevorrow. And that in-house, firsthand experience could be exactly what Lucasfilm needs for its new Episode IX director. To bring Episode IX all the way home, Lucasfilm needs a director like Dave Filoni.