Dave Filoni Promoted To Executive Creative Director At Lucasfilm

Among Star Wars fans, Dave Filoni has become a household name among Star Wars fans. Some would even go so far as to call him George Lucas' apprentice. 2005 saw the release of Avatar: The Last Airbender season 1, eight episodes of which were directed by Filoni himself. Thanks to the clout that he gained from this, Filoni caught the attention of George Lucas himself, fresh off of completing the prequel trilogy but set on making a 3D-animated TV show set within that era. Filoni has told the story multiple times, recounting how he was making a Plo Koon mask for himself and initially thought there was no actual contact from George Lucas and that it was just some joke that someone was pulling on him. As Han Solo would say, "It's true... All of it."

The animated series in question was, of course, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Premiering in 2008 with a film before the show proper aired on Cartoon Network, this new era of the franchise was off to a shaky start. Some fans were not necessarily convinced that Ahsoka was a character worth following, and Dave Filoni would become infamous among some fans as the TV show would contradict aspects of the Expanded Universe's take on the Clone Wars era, in a time when Lucasfilm said that how the different tellings fit together would make sense eventually. (It was never explained. And, frankly, these tellings should have been separate the moment that the 3D-animated take premiered.)

However, the series gained its own fanbase, and the viewers would grow up and champion The Clone Wars as their Star Wars. They showed support for the show when it got cancelled and went off the air in 2013 thanks to the Disney buyout. It came back for a season on Netflix a year later, but it was not enough. Fans continued to voice their support. In the meantime, Dave Filoni worked on a new series called Star Wars Rebels for Disney XD, which itself would gain its own fan following and at times feel like The Clone Wars 2.0. After Rebels ended in 2018, Filoni created and developed the 2D-animated Star Wars Resistance, though he did not write or direct like he did for the previous two series. This series would end in early 2020.

As it would turn out, The Clone Wars would have a final season on Disney+ in 2020. With Filoni seeing his vision through, fans were satisfied. This has been followed recently by its sequel series, the currently ongoing The Bad Batch, which Filoni created and developed. And he has also written and directed for the live-action series The Mandalorian, having a say in how the live-action Ahsoka Tano would make her debut. He will also have a hand in other upcoming live-action shows that are set in the same time period: The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and Rangers of the New Republic. With all the acclaim that Filoni has gotten, many fans would be content with him being more involved with Star Wars content.

And now, it has been reported that, as written on the Lucasfilm website, Filoni has received the title of Executive Creative Director at Lucasfilm, a title also held by John Knoll and Doug Chiang. What this means exactly is still a bit of a question mark, but it is safe to say that Filoni is here to stay. He has his place in the leadership of Lucasfilm, and he will surely tell more stories that will satisfy many fans.

Written By Steven Shinder

Source(s): Fantha Tracks

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