Star Wars: Dave Filoni Says He “Very Rarely” Thinks About Bringing Animated Characters to Live-Action

Dave Filoni is currently known for his work on Star Wars: The Mandalorian, but the creative got his start working in Star Wars animation. Filoni has been a producer, writer, and director on multiple projects including Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, and he’s credited for bringing some of the animated show’s biggest characters into live-action. He will be serving as the showrunner for Star Wars: Ashoka, which will follow the beloved character who made her live-action debut in the second season of The Mandalorian. The animated villain Cad Bane also appeared in The Book of Boba Fett last year, and more fan-favorite animated characters are expected to be seen in the future. However, Filoni recently revealed to The Wrap that bringing animated characters into live-action isn’t his priority. 

“Very rarely,” Filoni revealed when asked how often he thinks about brining his cartoon characters to live action. “I know people think it’s the other way around, which is fascinating to me, but I think there’s two ways to look at that, which is that, yes, they were animated characters, but to me, they’re just characters. And now I’m over here working in live-action. I’m comfortable with those characters, I know them, I like them and I like to see them around.

Filoni continued, “But also, it changes when they’re suddenly in a different medium. Katee’s [Sackhoff] talked about it a little bit, and the difference between performing Bo Katan as a voice actor versus performing her physically and being present on set as her – it’s a different vibe. I’m always cautious. And Jon [Favreau] and I talk about who will we bring in? I try to do it when it makes the most sense. When we needed a gunslinger to go up against some of our characters in Book of Boba Fett, Cad Bane’s name came up. I think looking at that, the first thing I think is, ‘Well, how do we do that and make it believable?’ Like the character, he’s so lean and gaunt in The Clone Wars. And if we don’t do that, is it all CG? How are we going to portray that? If we don’t think we can do that effectively, then we shouldn’t do it.”

He added. “At the end of the day, I’ve been very happy with the ones that have gone over. There may or may not be more in “Ahsoka,” if that’s your thing. If you’re excited about that, I’m just saying that one might have a few more, which makes sense, by the way. As you know, I wrote it. You can’t fault me there.”

Did Dave Filoni Direct the Darth Vader Scene in Rogue One?

Filoni has recently talked about shadowing other directors in the franchise. Star Wars Rebels voice actor Freddie Prinze Jr. recently talked about Filoni’s history working with other directors and claimed Filoni helmed the iconic Darth Vader scene in Rogue One instead of the film’s director, Gareth Edwards. However, Gary Whitta, who has a “story by” credit on the film, took to Twitter to debunk this claim. 

“I don’t know if people know this, maybe I’m not allowed to say this, but I don’t care anymore,” Prinze told the Lights, Camera, Barstool podcast. “He directed that scene in Rogue One where — well, basically the whole end of the movie — where Vader comes through… and you see, basically… what’s gonna happen in A New Hope. He directed all that.” The story was picked up by Geek Tyrant, who shared it on Twitter. “That Badass Darth Vader Scene in ROGUE ONE Was Actually Directed By Dave Filoni!” they captioned the post. “Completely false. This needs to be retracted and an apology issued,” Whitta replied.

The first three episodes of Star Wars: The Mandalorian‘s third season are now streaming on Disney+.