Since selling Lucasfilm to Disney for a whopping $4 billion, Star Wars creator George Lucas has been decidedly hands-off with the franchise. Originally, his story outlines were going to be used for the sequel trilogy, but the decision was made to head down a different route...for better or worse.
The Clone Wars' Dave Filoni was once Lucas' protégé, of course, so the legendary filmmaker has been seen visiting the set of The Mandalorian on a couple of occasions (he even got up close and personal with Grogu). Could that be leading to the filmmaker heading into this era of the Galaxy Far, Far Away for a cameo appearance of some sort?
Jon Favreau started by saying "[George Lucas] would be the best cameo," though Filoni wasn't quite so sure. "I don’t know...he’d have to be the son of Baron Papanoida or something like that. I don’t know. I wouldn’t even speculate on that. It’s hard for me to imagine what that day would be like."
This is obviously a reference to Lucas making a cameo appearance in Revenge of the Sith as Baron Papanoida, the chairman of Pantora, one of the moons of the planet Orto Plutonia. He could briefly be seen when Anakin Skywalker was running to meet Chancellor Palpatine at the opera shortly before being told the tale of Darth Plagueis.
Favreau added, "He’s been on the set when Dave’s been directing, so I love watching Dave and George together. George, I have tremendous respect for. I’ve been very fortunate to have great conversations where I’ve learned a lot. But when I see Dave and George Lucas together, that’s like a whole other– ’cause how long did you work together? Twelve years?"
"Yeah, close to that. Yeah, like at least, ten," Filoni responded. "I mean, it was a masterclass everyday. It was a masterclass. So I’m trying to apply that everyday and pass on what I’ve learned. I mean it is the Jedi experience, I’ve had."
Thus far, Favreau and Filoni have shown themselves to be the right choice to pick up where Lucas left off, delivering the sort of stories that fans of the Star Wars franchise want. The director hasn't really talked much about his thoughts on the current era of storytelling, but does appear to have enjoyed what these two have come up with so far.
Check out the full interview (via SFFGazette.com) with Favreau and Filoni below: