Dave Filoni Discusses Plotting The Clone Wars‘ Final Season, Addresses Ahsoka Tano Rumors for The Mandalorian Season 2

Entertainment Weekly recently spoke to Dave Filoni, who discussed working on Season 2 of The Mandalorian and the final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which is currently streaming on Disney+. Season 2 of The Mandalorian is slated to debut later this fall. Filoni is the showrunner for The Clone Wars and also serves as a producer, writer, and director for The Mandalorian. Below are some highlights.

Dave Filoni on if fans will see Revenge of the Sith differently after the series finale: “I suppose that’s inevitable. But there’s nothing that I show that wasn’t something that I learned from watching the film or from George. I have that privileged point of view from having worked with him and talked so much about these stories with him. I’m privy to details other people aren’t. But I feel a lot of what I’ve brought to light is actually already in the structure of the films themselves and what is said about the Jedi in the film and how they begin to believe their ability to use the Force is somehow being limited. That their vision is clouded. Some of the younger [and] even older Jedis are becoming arrogant — it’s all in the dialogue there when Mace, Yoda, and Ki-Adi-Mundi are talking [in ROTS]. I was always very interested in those scenes. I was very interested in what the Jedi were like in this era. So the films are just a real delight for me to watch and rewatch over and over, and then to get to work on that time period is a really great experience. So I was just bringing those stories to light, whereas the films concentrate very much on Anakin’s story and how everything is affecting him.”

On the rumors of Ahsoka Tano appearing in live-action for The Mandalorian: “All those rumors! Over the years people have always asked me about that character and potential live-action possibilities. It’s a real credit to the animation team and everybody that’s been involved with her over the years to make a character that fans say, “Hey, that would be great. We would want to see that.” And the debates that surround that. When we started in 2008 giving Anakin Skywalker a young Padawan wasn’t at top of mind for a lot of people. It seemed a bit out of left field and risky. George always knew that it would work if we did it the right way. The great thing about the character is she’s proved herself and earned her place among the Star Wars leads out there. So whatever the future holds, who knows? But for now, we’ll get to see this ending of Clone Wars and see how that goes.”

Dave Filoni on how he still talks with George Lucas and if Lucas had any input on this season: “That’s largely been taken out of context in people’s enthusiasm. George and I still talk, and I’ll ask him some things. But he’s just really enjoying watching them. What’s in play are things we had discussed years ago. The Bad Batch were series of stories we had written in story meetings with him, and the Trace and Rafa arc were adapted off of outlines from then. These last four episodes were probably the least developed of what we had done.

“There are elements that were always the same. Like the Siege of Mandalore. We knew Ahsoka went there to confront Darth Maul. I even had versions of those stories. Because The Clone Wars process got stopped, I didn’t think we ever would finish it, but because we finished it, when you make a story real and watch it, there’s still a lot of notes and revisions that need to go on, and dialogue changes and scene changes and a lot of work. He hadn’t really seen anything until you’re releasing it here. I respect him so much, and having worked with him, I just always want make sure I’m getting it right. So I check in with him time to time. If I’ve had success, it’s really because he was teaching us and took the time to teach us. He was teaching what he thought made this work and what didn’t. One little mistake can ruin a lot of things. So hopefully I got it more right than not.”

Dave Filoni on how the Mandalorians changing their rules will be addressed on The Mandalorian: “Those are really interesting questions, and fascinating and valid. But I don’t know if the job of this story is to bridge that. This story should be about what these characters need and what their wants are. There might be things that shade in certain directions; I’m sure people will see connections that I don’t see. It wasn’t like one of the primary goals. There are touchstones with everything, Jon [Favreau] worked on Clone Wars with me, he was a voice on it, so he’s aware of it. I’ll bring those things up, and we talk all the time. You make what connections you can to make it feel like the big, vast galaxy that we would like it to be. There are little things, but mainly more within Clone Wars itself and probably more likely to reflect on Rebels, because the Rebels time period is closer in proximity to the end of Clone Wars.”