The Incredible Story Behind Dave Filoni's Rise To Creative Director At Lucasfilm
Back in May of this year, fans noticed that Dave Filoni’s page on the official Lucasfilm website had a recent update. His title had changed to Executive Creative Director at Lucasfilm. The promotion probably happened back in late spring of 2020 but had remained largely under the radar until the change on the website. Today, we fans are familiar with his work in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars Resistance, The Mandalorian, and Star Wars: The Bad Batch, and cannot wait to see The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka. His journey to Lucasfilm was interesting and unique. A huge Star Wars fan himself, he had accomplished every fan’s dream of working with George Lucas and bringing the saga to life.
Filoni began his career as character and storyboard artist for shows like King of the Hill, Teamo Supremo, and Kim Possible. Then in 2003, he was promoted to director and worked on the first season of the popular Nickelodeon show Avatar: The Last Airbender. One day, in 2005, Filoni was preparing for the Revenge of the Sith premiere, building his lightsaber replica and working on his Plo Koon cosplay in the Nickelodeon Studios, when his fellow director and friend Giancarlo Volpe asked what would get him off Airbender, which he had enjoyed working on very much. Filoni laughed and jokingly responded, “If George Lucas offered me a job, I would go.”
Dave Filoni and Giancarlo Volpe as Plo Koon and Kit Fisto in 2005
A week later, he received a phone call from a producer at Lucasfilm Animation asking him to come to San Francisco to meet George Lucas about a job. He could not believe his ears, and thought he was getting pranked by the Spongebob Squarepants production team next door. He decided to go along with it anyway.
“My whole expectation honestly was: I’m going to meet George Lucas, and I’ll have a great story when I’m in line to go see [Revenge of the Sith] that nobody else has. But I’m certainly not going to get this job.”
The stars were not aligning for him that day. His flight to San Francisco was delayed. His ride was late. Something fell off the Richmond Bridge and broke the sunroof on the car he was in. However, nothing was going to stop him from meeting George Lucas. As he sat in Lucas’s office at Skywalker Ranch, he tried to take in his surroundings. As Lucas flipped through his portfolio and asked him questions, Filoni was in awe at the books on the shelves, the artwork, and the figures decorating the room. It was a dream come true for this long time Star Wars fan. He was in the presence of George Lucas himself!
“He looked at [my portfolio] briefly, and I was like yeah....you’re not going to impress him with your art...Then [he says], well, this is what a Jedi Knight is, and he starts talking to me about Star Wars and Jedi and stuff...and I remember thinking like yeah, I totally got what he is saying exactly from the movies. And it was fun ’cause some of it was like stuff I’ve debated with friends about how the Force works..I was right...This is cool.”
Filoni could not believe his ears when they told him the job was his, thinking they must have made a mistake. However, he was George Lucas’s chosen one to direct the new Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which would expand on the story of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi in the time period between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. It was to portray Anakin at the height of his Jedi career as he started to slide down toward the Dark Side of the Force. In a way, Filoni’s work on The Clone Wars was a parallel to the story he was telling. Like Anakin showing and teaching Ahsoka the way of the Force, Lucas was showing and teaching Filoni his vision of Star Wars.
“One day, George said, ‘Do you know why I enjoy working with you? Well, you listen to me.'”
With each episode, Filoni was able to take Lucas’s vision and translate it on screen for the audience. A true storyteller, he was successful in reproducing the sense of wonder he felt when he first saw Star Wars, and passed it on to the next generation of fans. Dave Filoni is a Star Wars fan first and foremost, and his love for the saga shows. George Lucas knows that his creation is in good hands.
Source(s): The Star Wars Show, Vanity Fair