Star Wars: Dave Filoni Weighs In on George Lucas Possibly Returning to Franchise

The filmmaker thinks Lucas is probably too preoccupied to return to the galaxy far, far away.

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Many Star Wars fans consider Dave Filoni to be the padawan to creator George Lucas, but as far as the likelihood of Lucas returning to the franchise he created, Filoni thinks his mentor has too many other things on his plate to collaborate on a future project. Understandably, Filoni confirmed that he would always be welcome to see Lucas return in some capacity, while highlighting the more subtle ways that Lucas has influenced various projects. Despite Lucas selling Lucasfilm to Disney back in 2012, he has been known to drop by the sets of various movies and TV series, though it's not fully known how many narrative suggestions he has made.

"I'm really, very, very respectful of his time," Filoni shared with the Happy Sad Confused podcast on how often he seeks storytelling advice from Lucas. "He has a museum to finish, which is gonna be a phenomenal experience and project for everyone to see. It never ceases to amaze me how George just gives, always, in his whole life. Whether it's the jobs we all get to have when he's gone, telling stories in a galaxy he created, or whether it's building a museum so so many kids can experience art, narrative art, and be inspired by that art and maybe someday tell stories themselves. He's just always giving and so I'm very cautious. I've had a lot of mentoring from him and the answer is yes, I do every now and then, but it's gotta be something really important for me to go and seek him out now."

He continued, "And yet, even when I do, it feels very mythical to go before him and talk. He's the most humble guy. It was the greatest asset on [Star Wars: The] Clone Wars, it was the greatest confidence, to know that he was there. To know that, no matter what we did, he was the backstop, and it had to be a little like maybe how Anakin felt with Obi-Wan sometimes, like, 'Obi-wan's got my back, I know he's there.' So when he's not there, you're flying free, flying down that trench, and you're figuring out, 'Am I gonna hit that exhaust port?' I don't always know. But we do our best ... we do it, we don't try, we do our best."

As far as whether that means Filoni will be interested in seeing Lucas return to the franchise in a more substantial way, he joked, "Would you say no? We rent the building I work in from George, so he has all the keys anyway. He can come right in, he has the pass. I'll tell you, whatever he would come up with would be different. He was always the most surprising in what he would do and how he would push things. Even when it's a simple thing now to people, like Ahsoka calling Anakin 'SkyGuy' or him calling her 'Snips.' At first, I was like, 'I don't ... wow, I never saw that in Star Wars. How does that work?' And as it went on, years later, you start to see, 'Oh, this is like big brother, little sister talk.' And so now it pays off for us, all these years later."

He added, "When he says 'Snips,' it's like an emotional moment for people that grow up with it, they grew up with Ahsoka. I always think he has such keen insight on those type of human things that make characters real, that make his galaxy real. It's not just that the starships look worn, that things look lived-in. He creates a lived-in world because the characters have experience, and they're very knowledgeable of their world. They've lived a life, and that's what he taught us when we worked in animation."

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Filoni is currently working on Season 2 of Star Wars: Ahsoka, and he is also on board to develop a movie that is expected to unite the events of Ahsoka, The Mandalorian, and Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett.

Would you like to see Lucas return to the franchise? Contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

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