Dave Filoni on Tackling His First Live-Action Star Wars Movie: ‘I’m More Prepared Than Ever’

“I get to make a movie!” Dave Filoni exclaimed in front of 4,500 screaming fans at Star Wars Celebration last Friday after it was announced he was one of three directors working on new live-action “Star Wars” films.

Technically, Filoni — who writes, directs and executive produces the currently streaming “Mandalorian” and upcoming “Ahsoka” series — has already directed a “Star Wars” film: 2008’s animated “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.” But taking on a big budget, big-screen live-action project is new territory for the franchise veteran.

Filoni is relatively new to the live-action directing game. The first time he shot live-action was on “The Mandalorian.” But Filoni’s mentor and co-executive producer Jon Favreau says Filoni’s experience in animation and ability to plan and visualize everything before it goes on screen will serve him well.

TheWrap caught up with Filoni right after the announcement to discuss his live-action film, which will bring together characters and stories from shows he and Jon Favreau have created.

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TheWrap: If you think about it, a feature film is actually shorter than a series — three or so hours versus eight or more. And production periods are often more condensed. How does your approach change going from series to film?
Dave Filoni: I haven’t talked about this a lot, but in the beginning, when I was thinking of getting into live-action, it was always around the character of Ahsoka. I mean, it’s just the character that I know the best. And it’s the story that I really want to tell. My original instincts were that it would be a film. But a film around her character was rather challenging for everything you’ve just cited. How do I condense who she is into such a short amount of time, especially when my experience was making series and drawing a story out over a longer period of time?

Right! You told her arc over dozens of episodes in two animated shows [“Star Wars: Clone Wars” and “Star Wars Rebels”].
As time went by, and Kathy [Kennedy] introduced me to the live-action world, getting to meet with filmmakers, and then getting to work with Jon Favreau most importantly, you start to learn to write a different way, a different style.

You start to see how actors can express things. And then the editing of it — I’ve been amazed at how flexible editing and live action is in ways that I would assume only animation could be — but thanks to all of the digital advancements and things that frankly, George [Lucas] fought for, to change the way we can make movies, we are able to do a lot so, you know, I’m just looking to apply, finally, all the things that I learned from George [Lucas] and many others to this format of a feature film.

Is it different in some ways?
Yes, very different. But in other ways. I’m more prepared than I’ve ever been thanks to the great mentors I’ve had. I’ll just attack it as I have attacked all the stories: break it down, outline the heck out of it, draw a bunch of pictures, see what sticks and what doesn’t, and hopefully come up with something that you enjoy.

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What does this actually mean for the streaming service now that you’re moving to a feature film project?
I think I’ll be very busy [laughs]. I enjoy all the different stories we’re telling; I’m still involved with “Bad Batch,” though Brad [Rau] and Jen [Corbett ] do a fantastic job with that. And, you know, I’ve tried to mentor them as George mentored me. I still like checking in with them. It’s a big group effort in “Star Wars.” And I think that that’s strengthening us as a team. So, you know, we’ll see. I’m deciding a lot of things now and what goes where, what characters go where, and we’ll see how that all shakes out.