Dave Filoni has effectively functioned as the de facto face of Star Wars ever since creator George Lucas moved on from the iconic franchise over ten years ago. Filoni has been involved in almost every single Star Wars project since the Prequel Trilogy, working alongside Lucas for years.
Filoni grew up a Star Wars fan and is considered the padawan of George Lucas, the handpicked protégé of the master himself, and he’s done well by the franchise and fanbase. Filoni’s series The Clone Wars and Rebels are some of the most beloved Star Wars content ever, with more highly-anticipated series like Ahsoka on the way. And of course, Filoni’s The Mandalorian is one of the most famous television series on the planet, as everyone, Star Wars fans and haters, know and love Baby Yoda and Daddy Mando, restoring hope for all when the disastrous Sequel Trilogy nearly killed the franchise.
With so much knowledge and experience of the franchise from Lucas himself and obvious love for the story, the fanbase has called for Filoni to lead Lucasfilm, even as company president, because he’ll be able to fix everything that’s been going wrong with Star Wars.
However, recent developments in a galaxy far, far away have changed how we should look at things, and if we want the story of Star Wars to continue to thrive after nearly fifty years, we have to think carefully about who’s in charge. Given The Mandalorian‘s recent failure and Andor‘s surprise success, it appears that Dave Filoni may not be the best choice to lead Lucasfilm after all, and here’s why.
Filoni’s Recent Failures
Dave Filoni worked alongside George Lucas for over six years, creating the beloved The Clone Wars animated series, learning much from his experience. He has been the executive producer and creative director at Lucasfilm for years now and has been involved in all Star Wars Disney+ projects (with one exception, we’ll get to that later), so it’s not an overstatement to say that Filoni has singlehandedly shaped Star Wars as we know it to be today. He is considered by many to be the future of the franchise.
However, after many years and many successes, it’s evident that Filoni isn’t perfect. He’s done wrong by fans three times now. The first failure was The Book of Boba Fett. This second-ever live-action Star Wars series has not only proven a massive disappointment itself for its lackluster story and poor treatment of its titular protagonist, who’s been a fan-favorite for decades, but also a major stumbling block for the rest of the franchise, especially The Mandalorian.
Filnoi’s second shortcoming was the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, the most anticipated Star Wars project since The Force Awakens. Filnoi didn’t have the same control over Obi-Wan Kenobi as he usually enjoys, but his fingerprints are all over the show. It wasn’t an outright failure, as the show had great moments, especially between Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi and Hayden Christensen’s Darth Vader. However, the series overall was simply good and simply didn’t meet fans’ (somewhat impossible) expectations. Filoni simply can’t make everything pitch-perfect.
The third and greatest mistake by Filoni is in his biggest achievement, The Mandalorian, as season three of the most famous show on the planet was an astounding failure, caused mainly by The Book of Boba Fett. Filoni’s The Mandalorian saved Star Wars for many after the frustratingly incoherent letdown of the Sequel Trilogy. Baby Yoda became king of the internet within hours of the premiere of the series, Mando has also been labeled since as the internet daddy, and so the first season was absolutely adored by Star Wars fans and non-fans. Season two continued the success, ending with the climatic emotional separation of Mando and Baby Yoda.
Fans were excited about the recently concluded season three beforehand but didn’t stay to watch. As the show failed to find its footing all the way through the season, following too many poorly developed plot threads with no apparent overarching goal and no justification for continued existence, leaving viewers increasingly unsatisfied and leading to drastically decreasing demand as the season continued until it suffered the lowest viewership records, proving fans have had enough. Many fans were also confused the whole way through because of critical little details like how Mando and Grogu got back together and why were left unanswered for the many who didn’t watch The Book of Boba Fett.
But that confusion gave much clarity about the acclaimed series, knowing that Filoni repeated the mistake of the Sequel Trilogy because it’s apparent that he didn’t have a plan after separating the beloved duo, so he just backtracked and hoped no one would call him out. So now we are questioning whether The Mandalorian will continue after so many disappointments. And with all the recent failures leading to big Star Wars fatigue, these three strikes also beg the question whether Filoni has lost his magic touch with Star Wars.
Andor’s Incredible Success
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Disney
Andor was the surprise masterpiece of last year because, as a prequel to a prequel, many didn’t expect much from what was likely to be just the next disappointment in the long line of recent live-action disappointments from Disney’s Star Wars. Yet, from the first moments of the first episode, Andor blew away all expectations, good and bad, and quickly established itself as the show that no one wanted, yet everyone needed, for both Star Wars lovers and haters.
Andor told an incredible story without any Jedi or Sith, introducing many new, deeply developed characters, more average, and more human. It’s a slow-burn action and political drama. It’s the most un-Star-Wars-like Star Wars you will ever get – and everyone loved it; it’s still receiving award after award, including the best series of the last years. Andor proved that Star Wars can be pure prestige and totally awesome.
And Dave Filoni had absolutely nothing to do with Andor. None of his fingerprints are on it because it was all showrunner Tony Gilroy. None of the callbacks to The Clone Wars or the same humor or the setting-up future shows, or anything that’s come to be associated with Filoni. Andor was completely independent of Filoni. Andor was great because Filoni had nothing to do with it. Filoni is a lifelong Star Wars fan who grew up playing with lightsabers, and making Star Wars shows with his own characters is a dream come true. Gilroy doesn’t care about Star Wars at all. He cares about making a good story. Gilroy doesn’t let any over-reverence take over his art.
Amid all Filoni’s recent failures with fans and Gilroy’s success with fans and haters, it shows that Filoni isn’t the best in the Star Wars biz and shouldn’t be trusted with unlimited power.
Lucasfilm Should Expand Beyond Star Wars
The greatest reason why Dave Filoni shouldn’t be in charge is because Star Wars isn’t Lucasfilm. The iconic franchise is the company’s bread and butter. Still, Lucasfilm should expand beyond Star Wars, because the company owns more franchises, like Indiana Jones and Willow, and should broaden their approach.
Focusing on multiple franchises allows more stories, which allows more creativity and new stories, which means better stories. Putting Filoni as head of Lucasfilm would guarantee a tunnel vision on Star Wars, which might be the company’s doom if they can’t figure out how to create better stories as Filoni himself isn’t doing so well. There’s no point in putting all your eggs in one basket, and putting Dave Filoni in charge of Lucasfilm would mean just that.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
