Is STAR WARS REBELS Showrunner Dave Filoni Interested In Directing A Live-Action STAR WARS Film?
Dave Filoni, who's overseen all of Lucasfilm's animation projects and currently guides Star Wars Rebels, on whether he's interested in steering the ship on a live-action Star Wars film.
Would Dave Filoni (Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Avatar: The Last Airbender) be interested in helming a live-action Star Wars film? Lucasfilm has reiterated that they are still hashing out details for their standalone anthology Star Wars films and announcing Filoni as the director for one of them would certainly please the fandom.
However, directors making the jump from animation to live-action have struggled in recent memory (see Andrew Stanton's John Carter and Brad Bird's Tomorrowland) and that's an issue that has to give Filoni and likely Lucasfilm pause. The Rebels showrunners acknowledges as much when he's asked if the standalone Star Wars film have any draw for him.
“I’d be crazy to say I’m not interested in that. I don’t want to say that would be the ultimate, because I really enjoy the stories I’m telling now and I would never undercut them by saying they’re something less. I think the craft we do and the work we do in these series is tremendous and the artists we have working on them are amazing. But I can’t help but be curious about this live-action world and what I see there and the tremendous opportunities that are around me. It is very interesting to me, I respect the craft that it is, it’s a different style.
I’ve been observing and learning a lot about it to see how I would do (it) and if it fits with my creative vision for things or would I encumber the process. I don’t do things like that unless I feel like I do have a real ownership and mastery of it, I just think it’s disrespectful to the crew that you would work with, who would obviously been tremendous professionals and I wouldn’t want to hinder them in any way. You know, we’ll see. In some circles you find you’re a master and in some circles you’re still a Padawan, we should always be learning, all of us. Always be learning.”
With Rebels confirmed to be ending next season, Filoni will certainly be free to explore and weigh a transition into live-action, and based on his comments, he's already identified and begun educating himself on how to fill in the gaps in his knowledge to make the jump from animation into features.
Though we didn't recieve any news on the anthology standalone films at Star Wars Celebration Orlando, perhaps an announcement will be made on May the 4th? If a live-action film is something Filoni decides he wants to pursue what are the odds that Lucasfilm lets him direct one of their billon dollar spinoffs?