Dave Filoni talks about his Star Wars projects and the transition from animation to live-action

Fans of the great animated series Star Wars: Rebels they were excited to hear from that co-creator of the show Dave Filoni he was returning to do his live-action Star Wars: Ahsoka story on Disney+. He had left a huge chunk of the story open-ended when the animated series wrapped up, with no word on whether fans could expect to see a resolution.

Now that we know what he had up his sleeve, the guys over at io9 recently asked Filoni if ​​that was really the plan all along. He replied:

“This is an interesting question. I would say, you know, through working with George, I saw a chance to work in live action where I’ve never seen it before. I didn’t know if it was something for me. But after working with him for so long and the way he taught me and then Kathy [Kennedy] coming into the company, one of the first things she and I talked about was, “Is there the potential for me to be exposed to live-action and what does that look like?” And so, of course, that was right when we started making Rebels. The most important job I had going into this whole transition of Lucasfilm and Disney was to get the show going and make sure it was a strong title for us coming out of the gate. But, you know, while I was watching JJ [Abrams] and Riano [Johnson] and Gareth [Edwards] and all these different people coming in and exploring the live action, I was able, because of Kathy, to get exposure to that kind of production and what it’s like. And so it was incredibly exciting and interesting.

“I mean, I love animation. I love what I do there, but I think creatively as an artist, you have to constantly push yourself into new ways to tell your story or express yourself through [different] medium. And it became something that interested me. I had no idea if I would be any good at it. It’s different.”

Filoni explained it The Mandaloriancreated by Jon Favreauit opened new doors for their kind of style and new ones Star Wars storytelling.

“There are similarities in the production pipeline that Jon was working with. Thanks to the work of him on Lion King AND jungle book, there was a lot of crossover with what he was developing in animation. And so for me, it was a little bit more of a natural fit where I could get to grips with an incredibly talented crew.

While all of this information is very interesting backstage, Filoni hasn’t answered the question yet. Did he ever consider that he could continue the story of Rebels in live-action versus animation?

“The moment I did the epilogue Rebels, I had an idea of ​​what this story would be like. And it definitely was… so, just to answer the question, I would say “Yes”. It was definitely an option in my mind that, wow, this could be live-action if I go ahead with this.

“But there were many things in that ‘if.’ Which era can I tell the story too? What does it look like? How is the budget? Who will play these characters? There are so many unknowns. But it was definitely on the table, as well as continuing in animation.

So why live action over animation?

“You have to decide what’s best for the story. And I think we’ve found, you know, whatever my story is [in] AhsokaI’m really happy.”

“And, you know, I didn’t know Jon was going to do it Mandalorian the moment I made that epilogue. It was all in motion, but I certainly didn’t understand Ahsoka’s role. But I know about this time period because I grew up with a lot of Expanded Universe stuff. And so I think it was also an influence on what the future has in store for everyone existing after-Return of the Jedi.”

The limited series Ahsoka will be released this year on Disney+. Are you excited to see where his story goes?