Star Wars: Dave Filoni Says George Lucas Should Be “Spirit of Everything” Guiding Them

The Star Wars universe has come a long way since George Lucas wrote and directed the first film in the franchise, Star Wars: A New Hope in 1977. In the 45 years since there have been movies, television series, books and so much more bringing new stories and new corners of the galaxy far, far away to life. But according to Star Wars: The Mandalorian producer Dave Filoni, it’s Lucas’ original creation that should be the spirit of everything guiding the universe forward.

Speaking at Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, Filoni spoke a bit about his process in writing and creating within the Star Wars universe, and then spoke about how he feels fortunate to play in the world Lucas created.

“I think the way to explain it for me is like, I sit down and I write a story, I write a moment, I talk to John, I say, ‘I think Ahsoka could know this kid’s name because she would be able to speak somehow with him, only a Jedi could intuit and then you write that scene and there’s trees and a creek and Mando’s there and Grogu is there and Ahsoka’s there,” Filoni said. “And then you go over the costumes in great detail. You talk about fabrics, and you build this thing over several months leading up to a moment where you walk through the doors of a stage and there’s the forest and there’s The Child and there’s Ahsoka and she kneels down and it’s awesome. And it never stops being that awesome. And it’s the whole crew. It’s everybody involved. It’s not just one person, because we know the only person who really was was George, and he created this, and we get to play in it. That is like, I think, the spirit of everything we should be doing. He’s hopefully looking over all this and still guiding it because he left us such a great galaxy to play in and that’s how I feel about it.”

And it seems like the world Lucas created is going to be going on for a long time to come. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said that Star Wars can go on forever as long as there are good stories and storytellers.

“We’re continuing to expand on Mandalorian. Ahsoka is the next iteration of that. And then what Jon Watts is doing with his show. It gives us different places on the timeline to look at, because there is this persistent story of Star Wars,” Kennedy said. “That’s what we’re building on. So rather than thinking that we’re just going to go do a one-off story, we’re constantly thinking about what does this really mean inside the long saga and mythology that George Lucas created. So, it could go on forever, to be perfectly honest. If we have good storytellers, it will go on forever.”

The latest entry in the Star Wars universe, Obi-Wan Kenobi, is now streaming its first two episodes on Disney+.