The Mandalorian: Hunting High And Low

AS THE FIRST LIVE-ACTION STAR WARS TELEVISION SERIES HITS SCREENS – IN SOME AREAS, AT LEAST – SFX CATCHES UP WITH DIRECTOR AND MAN-IN-THE-KNOW DAVE FILONI

- James Mottram

DAVE FILONI HAS BEEN TELLING stories in a galaxy far, far away for a long time now. As an animator, writer and director at Lucasfilm Animation, he’s helped to chart the creative trajectory of the various animated series all the way back to Star Wars: The Clone Wars, right up to the present day.

Mentored by George Lucas on everything from mythology to blocking sequences, Filoni has evolved into a walking encyclopaedia of Star Wars, earning the respect of fans and critics alike for some of the tightest storytelling in the universe. Which is why, when the news broke that he was dipping a toe into live-action waters as a writer/ director on the Star Wars TV series The Mandalorian, there was a resoundingly positive response from the fandom. The warm reception provided some wind in his sails, as Filoni admits to SFX that it was nerve-wracking – but also that it was time to test himself.

“We all feel like Luke at one point in our lives, you know?” he muses, considering when life-changing moments pop up. “And I think people are mistaken when they think you just go through that once in life. You’re always going through it. Sometimes it just means you need to challenge yourself. And as comfortable as I’ve become in the animated world, working with such a great team, they know my notes before I give them here at Lucasfilm Animation. So it was good to step outside my comfort zone and work in live action, and meet these other talented people.”

Of course, Filoni’s main collaborator on The Mandalorian isn’t a new face, but an old friend: director/writer/actor Jon Favreau. The pair first met in 2008 at Skywalker Ranch, when Filoni was working there on Clone Wars and Favreau was mixing