Andor Made Me Rethink What Dave Filoni’s Role at Lucasfilm Should Be
Diego Luna as Cassian Andor. © 2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
Andor is absurdly good. The writing and direction are impeccable. Every conversation is elevated into gripping expositions of character motivations. No scene is wasted. The Empire is exactly what it should be—scary, ruthless, and run by competent people who are true believers and good at their jobs.
Most of the online discourse I’ve seen echoes my sentiments. There’s so much excitement—I don’t think anyone believed we’d get a Star Wars show with this tone.
I’ve also seen a lot of complaining. Not much at Andor itself, but how it compares to other Star Wars media, like Obi-Wan Kenobi. I’ve seen people ask, “Why did Andor get a bigger budget?” “Why does it look better?” “Why is the writing better?” “Doesn’t Disney care about Obi-Wan and Darth Vader?”
At first, I was nettled by these questions. Don’t people understand how writing and show development work? It has nothing to do with how much a company cares about a project! But then, I understood. What fans are really asking is, “Why has Lucasfilm’s output been so inconsistent since the Disney takeover?”
(L-R): Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Owen Lars (Joel Edgerton) in Obi-Wan Kenobi. © 2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
Well, this is something I’ve been pondering since the sequel trilogy.
It’s been three years since The Rise of Skywalker, and I am still baffled by the studio’s decisions. Why did Lucasfilm think they didn’t need a plan—an outline—for the sequel trilogy? Why did they think giving three very different directors carte blanche to do whatever they wanted was a good idea? Did they really think the story wouldn’t end up a convoluted, contradictory mess?
How did J. J. Abrams, an acclaimed writer, just figure out that good endings must be planned? Why did Lucasfilm go along with his open-ended setup? Why didn’t the Story Group step in?
Like many people, I had assumed that the Story Group was responsible for the direction of Star Wars content. But that is not exactly the case. The Story Group functions more as the “keepers of canon” and is there to answer questions and help writers/directors as they write and pitch stories. The Story Group has plans for Star Wars, but they are vague at best.
If no single person is exercising final authority on story direction, what’s the solution? The most obvious answer is to put someone in a story leadership role so they can give all of Lucasfilm’s projects cohesion. A lot of Star Wars fans had the same thought I did—give Dave Filoni the same role Kevin Feige has over stories at Marvel.
Dave Filoni understands Star Wars. Of course he does. George Lucas personally invited him to come and work on The Clone Wars. Dave Filoni is George Lucas’s unofficial successor and is a great writer. Dave Filoni also has respect for stories outside the official Star Wars canon.
When The Mandalorian aired, I was relieved to see Dave Filoni’s influence. After so much uncertainty and story whiplash, I knew he and Jon Favreau could bring some consistency and tell a good story.
Dave Filoni on the set of The Mandalorian. © 2020 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
Obi-Wan wasn’t produced or written by Dave Filoni, but his fingerprints are all over the show. He reportedly fought hard for Hayden Christensen to return and answered all of the writer/director’s questions about canon and story. There are inquisitors—a Dave Filoni invention from Star Wars Rebels. Obi-Wan and Vader’s fight has many direct callbacks to Ashoka and Vader’s fight in season two of Rebels.
Maybe Dave Filoni should’ve had a bigger role in Obi-Wan. Maybe Lucasfilm should make it official and give him control over all the Star Wars projects.
Or should they?
When I watched Andor, something struck me: Dave Filoni’s fingerprints weren’t on the show. Anywhere. There were no callbacks to The Clone Wars, none of the humor I’ve come to associate with his writing. There was nothing that reminded me of him. Zip. Andor stands independently, far from the Dave Filoni web network.
Consistency is all well and good, but only to a point. When I go see a Marvel film, I more or less know what I’m getting. The MCU is like Doritos. Sure, there’s some variation in Doritos flavors—Cool Ranch versus Nacho Cheese—maybe you like your MCU Taika Waititi flavored, or maybe you prefer your MCU Russo flavored. Still Doritos.
The MCU’s cohesion is largely because of Kevin Feige’s influence, direction, and how stories get adapted from existing comics. The consistency is a feat. I don’t want to discredit that, nor Kevin Feige’s eye for storytelling.
The glaring exception to the MCU similarity is the Netflix Marvel TV shows. They are very different in terms of tone, themes, and what they’re trying to accomplish. These projects feel different, partly because Kevin Feige had nothing to do with them. Jessica Jones and Daredevil exist because he wasn’t there to influence their development.
Andor is the same. The show is as good as it is because Dave Filoni wasn’t there to influence its development. All storytellers have a specific style, and Dave Filoni’s doesn’t belong in something like Andor. As much as I love Dave Filoni, I no longer want him to have creative oversight on every Star Wars television/movie project. I don’t want anyone to take that role within Lucasfilm.
I don’t want Star Wars Doritos.
© 2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
There’s precedent for less oversight, too. In the days of the Extended Universe, we got stuff like Knights of the Old Republic and Admiral Thrawn and Mara Jade and Starkiller because people were free to create. We also got bad stories. Nobody cared, including George Lucas. All of us looked at the trash and thought, Well, that was terrible and moved on. I think Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, understands this.
I know there’s a big difference between a bunch of bad books and comics versus television shows that have multi-million-dollar budgets, but the point is, Star Wars has been loosey-goosey with its consistency for a long time. Writers and creators have always been allowed to influence Star Wars. We’ve gotten special stories because of that approach. I want more Mandalorian, and I want more Andor. And despite my personal feelings on the direction of Episode 8, I’m sad we won’t see the Rian Johnson movie trilogy.
I still believe there should be plans in place. Too much creative freedom leads to messy narratives like the sequel trilogy. But I’ve come to understand that full narrative control isn’t the answer either. There should be a happy medium somewhere.
The Star Wars sandbox is vast, and I believe there’s room for many types of stories inside it. I’d much rather have lots of different voices. I’d much rather have the gems and the inconsistency.
Follow @TwinCitiesGeeks on Twitter or Like Twin Cities Geek on Facebook for more great stuff from Minnesota geeks in your feed!
About the Author
Amy J. Soba
Amy is a blogger, copywriter, and interviewer who dreams of publishing her own science-fiction novel. In her spare time, she loves watching anime, reading manga, perusing used bookstores, drawing her favorite characters, and playing tabletop games.
Comments
Add a Comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Hi Amy,
Actually, I agree with you about Filoni. I just finished watching Andor and one of the takeaways is that, much like what you’re saying, Filoni didn’t need to be a part of Andor.
Andor was basically the Star Wars version of Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers. Please check that movie out if you haven’t already. It’s one of the best movies ever. Anyway, I didn’t feel Andor was impeccable. I actually thought it was a little long. There were definitely scenes that weren’t needed. For example, how many scenes do we really need with Syril and his mom? How many scenes do we need of Bix in the torture room? Did we ever really get closure on the pursuit of Andor’s sister? Blevin was Dedra Meero’s nemesis and then just kind of wasn’t.
It wasn’t a perfect show. But I did enjoy it.
Where are you getting your information from? There were only 2 directors for the sequel trilogy! JJ had a plan and Rian Johnson threw it out due to KK, and the Story Group finding Luke toxic and he wanted to do something artistic for himself and not the fans as it has been stated numerous times! That’s how he pissed off the fanbase. JJ had a plan for all 3 movies, Johnson and company ruined it and then left JJ with the final film to try and fix what Johnson did as well as tie everything together, which was impossible!
How do you not know this? Do more research before you write about something.
There were 3 directors when the trilogy was being developed.
Colin Trevvorow was for #3 but left when #2 came out due to creative differences with KK. THEN JJ came back. He was never part of the original plan for #3 when it was being developed.
And the article is talking about the “plan” they had when doing the trilogy: 3 different directors.
How do you not know this? Do more research before you write about something.
JJ had no plan. There are holes all over the place in the 1st movie with his love for “mystery boxes”. He was never going to do all 3 movies. That was never a plan to happen Literally never.
Actually, it’s a myth that Abrams had a plan. No one at Disney had a plan. They had some elements of a plan, but nowhere close to what you’re imagining. How about maybe you do more research before writing something!
Andor is good *because* Dave Filoni didn’t shoehorn his lame Ahsoka Tano Mary Sue character into it.
Ahsoka is far from a mary sue, her first appearance she was a brat who thought she could do anything, and that continued on for seasons until she learned her position. Even afterwards she wasn’t the strongest nor the best. She “dies” in rebels and is brought back. She’s a failed jedi and she knows it.
It’s actually hilarious that you think Ahsoka is a mary sue. Shows how you don’t know anything at all. About anything.
This is a good observation. I thimk the balance exists in having a person in charge of the overall story of shows/movies that directly tie into one another. If episodes 7 through 9 had this the trilogy would have been better for it. However, I don’t see any reason that hypothetical person would have to be in charge of something like Andor or Obi-Wan. There’s enough space between those narratively they are better served by having their own teams with a story editor making sure they don’t glaringly contradict anything else.
Wow, in this article, you contradicted yourself over and over and made no valid point backed up by anything but your own opinion. Opinions are like a*****es everyone has one and they all stink.😂
Kathleen is a great producer, but with star wars she’s made many mistakes, Dave is a great creative and loves start wars, but seems to want to play in one corner of the universe with a particular tone that works great but as Andor shows, it is not the only tone that we are thirsty for… Favored on the other hand, he is the one that in my opinion should be shepherding the creative direction of the franchise
I think you hit it on the head when you said she is a great producer – shes not a creative though, and she needs to understand that.
For a star wars show, it was very bare minimum. I would call it star wars for people who are new to star wars and don’t like star wars. There was barely any fight scenes, a staple of star wars, its even in the name. A humongous lack of aliens, aliens only showing up in the background with little to no speaking parts. A pretty sad lack of droids, besides bee and a few imperial droids. The creativity was lacking as well, an ak blaster? It looked bare minimum. Had you taken away, the details like the empire and droids, it could’ve been a completely normal space sci fi show and none would be the wiser.
The fact that you are sad that Rian Johnson didn’t get his trilogy, that Kathleen Kennedy would have a clue and the story group should have stepped is a bad sign.
It was three. JJ did not direct 9 from the beginning.
Well written article. Good job
Sean I’m with you on this. People were able to forget Solo but Rian Johnson’s persistently contradictory middle entry was doomed to throw the whole sequal trilogy into chaos.
Welcome to the club. Lifetime fans in general have always been a lot less impressed with phony Filoni.
I agree Christ , but I presume they were building the characters backgrounds . As with Mom Mothma’s scenes, quite slow and long . I thought during the fight on Rix road , it would of been better for Dedra to be captured by Val ( as Luthen ordered her to watch the hotel ) at gunpoint with Cerel in pursuit as her rescueer….. giving him more credibility in Dedra’s mind that he’s willing to risk all for her and the Empire. I thought the way they were left seemed a little awkward… like she’s was going to kiss him ?
Good? How do you figure the show is anywhere near good? It opened on one simple question. “Where is my sister?”
Can any viewers of the show tell me how this question got answered anywhere in the show? Where did the character or story development required to answer that question go? How did the story ruse to meet the mystery it opened on?
Anyone who thinks this show is good is the sort of good consumer Disney wants. So long as the keys keep jingling, you’re happy to laugh yourself asleep, regardless of the fact that the story obviously doesn’t want you to pay attention to any of the details about the story. They just want you to clap because it’s Star Wars.
Don’t forget that Disney told us from the getgo that the Sequel Trilogy was planned in advance and contained an arcing story – in fact they told us that about all their content moving forward, even though they’ve walked that back and retconned a number of pieces of it.
Andor is to Star Wars what a Lord of the Rings movie would be if you took out all the Hobbits, Orcs, Wizards, Sorcery, Swords, and just had some peoole walking in the woods talking about life. It might be interesting but it is not Lord of Rings. Andor Is not Star Wars. It’s low viewership ratings prove it.
I think there is room in these mega franchises for lots of types of stories, so I agree to a point. I think Filoni over looking story isn’t a bad thing but also feel there is shouldn’t be too strict control in every project. Personally I thought Andor was rather disappointing, it was just ok. I thought Obi Wan was really great and while the Bad Batch of Book of Boba Fett hasn’t really done it for me I love Rebels, Clone Wars and the Mandalorian is nearly perfect. I also am really hoping to see more in the sequel area and post trilogy as the new characters really didn’t get explored like they should have.
Check the credits for Andor. Dave Filoni is in there, as a consultant I believe. He clearly had some role in the show and story development.
This is one the best written pieces about Star wars and I couldn’t agree more. Filoni gives a lot of fans exactly what they want to see. I remember when the Vong stories took over in the legacy. Yes it was weird and a lot of it was stupid but it was new and pushed something that wasn’t just another rogue imperial looking to kidnap Leia’s kids. After all those books, star wars tried new things. Fan service needs to be sprinkled in and Filoni has his story and his characters that all his works revolve around, but 8 was and it’s the best of the sequel trilogy. Andor is the best show Disney created. It’s not the same things we’ve seen. And more writers and directors should be allowed to play on the same box.
Side note 1. JJ is completely at fault for the sequel trilogy. He loves to write the “Mystery box” storyline. The problem with the mystery box, is that it’s never quite as good as what your imagination thinks it is. That was his problem with the TV show Lost. Once you started answering the mystery box, the show went off the deep end. Force awakens set up all these mystery boxes, which forced roan johnson then to open them. Some people didn’t like what are you opened. I personally loved it! I think it is the best Luke Skywalker moment in all of the Skywalker saga. And then everyone was so upset, that he answered the mystery box. Box question that JJ posed, that they had JJ right the third one, and scrap everything that have been set up in eight, and instead tried to write a whole new trilogy and pack it all into one movie.
Side note 2. Solo isn’t a bad film. But it’s completely pointless. Han Solo’s character has a very definitive story arc in the original trilogy. You can’t give him the exact same story arc in a prequel like this. It’s bad storytelling in a general sense. We all know Han Solo is a good guy. We all know that he’s going to come through in the end. So to have your whole plot be about him becoming that person, ruins the story arc in the original trilogy. I love Han Solo, I love lando calrissian in the solo movie. But the entire story arc is pointless and meaningless, and that creates just a bad experience at the movies.
Well thats false. Unless life time fan means u watched the movies as a kid an owned some toys..
Because fans who have followed star wars through its entire life knows Fillion will respect all of it even from legends and bring together all the best parts. Like thrawn and mandalorian wars…
Not this crap KK let happen with the galaxies new hope, the man who refused to kill his own father after years of atrocities would suddenly on a whim attempt to kill his nephew then become a crabby old man hiding from everyone. Sorry.
Do away with kk. Put Filion in charge, and I’m sure he would make projects like andor still happen while stopping such garbage like the last jedi.
fans who have followed star wars through its entire life knows Fillion will respect all of it even from legends and bring together all the best parts. Like thrawn and mandalorian wars…
Not this crap KK let happen with the galaxies new hope, the man who refused to kill his own father after years of atrocities would suddenly on a whim attempt to kill his nephew then become a crabby old man hiding from everyone. Sorry. B.s.
Not my Luke Skywalker.
Ask Mark Hamill, that’s not his Luke Skywalker either.
Do away with kk. Put Filion in charge, and I’m sure he would make projects like andor still happen while stopping such garbage like the last jedi.
Speak for yourself. I’ve been a fan since the beginning and I love Filoni.
Hard disagree. I agree that someone SHOULD have a Feige-like role at Lucasfilm, but it shouldn’t be Filoni. I haven’t enjoyed anything he’s been heavily involved in, and I find his style to be too safe and kid-oriented. There’s a place for that, but it shouldn’t be the overall tone or approach of the franchise. Star Wars should be suitable for kids, but not treat them like kids. I hate that SW has become just another YA property.
I love Andor. I liked Rogue One, for that matter. At the end of the first season most questions were answered. Except one, what happens next ? I love the set ups and the exposition.
But this is my issue im bored with the MCU. It doesnt captivate me like it once did. It feels like im watching the clock at work waiting for my shift to end and it never does. Not once in my life have i ever been bored with Star Wars. Every show and movie is unique but still relys on the over all story of Star Wars. If you try and watch them as stand alone all of them fail but if you watch them as a larger cohesive story than it works flawlessly. I do think Filoni should be handed the reigns like Feige. He is the best bet for the future of Star Wars.
So Kathleen Kennedy sabotages several of Filoni and Favaro’s projects and then she gets all the credit when another director manages to sneak one through under her radar? She is a cancer, period. And you can disagree all you want but the dollars talk.