Star Wars Veteran Dave Filoni Named Chief Creative Officer At Lucasfilm

Topline

Lucasfilm has promoted Dave Filoni to chief creative officer at the Disney-owned company, Filoni told Vanity Fair, a move that will bring the director, producer and writer closer to the inception point of future Star Wars shows and movies—as Lucasfilm prepares to produce the first new Star Wars films in years.

Filoni has been an executive producer on several “Star Wars” shows. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty … [+] Images for Disney)

Getty Images for Disney

Key Facts

Filoni, who has worked on the wildly popular “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” animated TV show and “The Mandalorian,” told Vanity Fair he’s trying to help “Star Wars” filmmakers “tell the best story they want to tell,” adding that in his position, he’s “not telling people what to do.”

Filoni will work closer with Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy and Head of Development Carrie Beck going forward, according to Vanity Fair, which reported the new role will put him into the narrative development for Star Wars shows and movies earlier and in a more expansive capacity.

The promotion comes at an interesting time for Lucasfilm, which is years out from returning “Star Wars” to theaters and continues pushing out a slew of live-action and animated “Star Wars” shows on Disney+.

Filoni, who is exploring a possible second season for the Rosario Dawson-led “Ahsoka,” according to Vanity Fair, will take the lead on a “Star Wars” movie that will flesh out the gap between “Return of the Jedi” and “The Force Awakens.”

Surprising Fact

“Star Wars” hasn’t had a movie in theaters since 2019’s “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” which is one of the most poorly rated movies from the franchise by critics. Lucasfilm is gearing up for redemption in the theater realm and will now have more input from Filoni for three new movies that are slated for release in 2026 and 2027. The most recent “Star Wars” films, which were released from 2015 to 2019, are in the top five of the franchise’s highest-grossing movies. Disney—which acquired Lucasfilm from legendary filmmaker George Lucas in 2012—decided to take a break from cinematic releases after that point, electing to invest its time and money into “Star Wars” series on Disney+, where shows have grown significantly in number since the streaming platform launched in 2019.

Key Background

Filoni has made a large jump at Lucasfilm with the promotion. The creative executive has now gone from leading animated shows and doing the same on live-action “Star Wars” shows like “The Mandalorian,” to becoming Lucasfilm’s creative authority for the staple sci-fi franchise. The new executive position could bring more cohesion and focus to the “Star Wars” stories being told through the Disney+ shows, which span an increasingly wide range of characters from several points in the “Star Wars” timeline. Filoni’s experience will undoubtedly play a role in how future movies from the franchise shake out.

Tangent

Filoni directed several episodes of Nickelodeon’s “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” an Emmy award-winning series credited as one of the best animated TV shows of the 2000s.

Big Number

Five. That’s how many entries “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and “Star Wars: Rebels” have on IMDBs list of top 100 best rated TV episodes of all time.

Star Wars Veteran Dave Filoni Named Chief Creative Officer At Lucasfilm—Here’s What To Know