Dave Filoni has been instrumental in reshaping the Star Wars franchise in recent years, with his work on TV shows like The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels helping to lay the groundwork for the stories being told on Disney+ today.
He rose through Lucasfilm's ranks under the watchful eye of George Lucas and, after recently working on live-action projects such as The Mandalorian and Ahsoka, he's now getting the chance to direct his own movie. That's going to bring together the characters from all of these post-Return of the Jedi-era stories, but will it be a culmination of them?
"Culmination is an interesting word," Filoni says to Empire Online (via SFFGazette.com). "The way I look at it, there are [small] stories, and then there’s the big story of the day, too. A New Hope, Empire and Return Of The Jedi tell the important parts of the tale that really define the history of the period.
"There are all kinds of sub-stories underneath that. We’ve been building all these small stories."
"To me, a theatrical experience has to have a big idea – a monumental moment in the time period that changes what’s happening," Filoni adds. "You’re looking for those moments that define an era, and that’s what the films really should be about – whether it’s characters coming together, or a defining moment."
What could that monumental moment be? With Grand Admiral Thrawn set to return in Ahsoka, many fans believe we're getting a loose adaptation of the Expanded Universe's Thrawn Trilogy, "Heir to the Empire." The story introduced Mara Jade and saw Thrawn attempt to take charge of the Empire in the wake of Emperor Palpatine's demise.
"I have ideas, of course. I will not tell you what they are!" Filoni responded when asked about Thrawn's role in what's to come. "There are little things along the way that I’ve built across different mediums, all in preparation for things that come later..."
Do you think the villainous Grand Admiral should be the big bad of this upcoming Star Wars movie?