Star Wars: Dave Filoni Directing New Republic Movie That Culminates Mandalorian Timeline

Dave Filoni is getting a promotion. The long-time Star Wars talent has been working with Lucasfilm since 2008, when he directed the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated film and subsequent served as the supervising director on the Star Wars: The Clone Wars cartoon series. The cowboy hat wearing producer would leap to live-action in Fall 2019, working with director Jon Favreau to create The Mandalorian, a series he would also direct episodes for. Filoni’s fingerprints have been all over the streaming side of the galaxy far, far away ever since, as he has helped bring both The Book of Boba Fett and the upcoming Ahsoka to life.

Now, Filoni is making his way to the big screen. As revealed at Star Wars Celebration, Filoni is set to helm a movie that will follow “the escalating war between the imperials and the fledging New Republic” that culminates the Disney+ shows. It is described as a cinematic event set during The Mandalorian timeline.

3 new Star Wars movies set in the past, present, and future of the timeline will be directed by James Mangold, Dave Filoni, and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy! #StarWarsCelebration https://t.co/cz8fheO1Rv pic.twitter.com/PIbRbaHjtW

— Brandon Davis (@BrandonDavisBD) April 7, 2023

This project is a long-time coming for Filoni. As mentioned, he has been officially intertwined in the Star Wars DNA for well over a decade, but Filoni himself is a life-long fan of the franchise. Even when he was not specifically working on a Star Wars movie or series, Filoni was still making an effort to learn from their productions.

Earlier this year, Filoni revealed that he shadowed director Rian Johnson while he was making Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

“[Lucasfilm President] Kathleen Kennedy and I talked from the very beginning of her coming into Lucasfilm about whether there would be opportunities for me to experiment with live-action or try it,” Filoni said. “And she really worked at coming up with a plan to educate me and get me involved. I visited J.J. [Abrams] on The Force Awakens, I visited Gareth Edwards [on Rogue One] and I visited Rian on [The Last Jedi]. Rian was the one who shoved me up front, sticking lenses in my hand and really getting me immersed in it. And so I still talk with him to this day. He’s obviously a very talented filmmaker, and I was just very fortunate to be in such an environment where I could sit and listen and learn.”

Filoni’s Star Wars movie is currently without a release date. He has a busy rest of 2023, as after The Mandalorian wraps up this month, Filoni’s Ahsoka premieres on Disney+ in August.