Glad to see him getting the recognition he deserves outside of fan circles. This is the person who should take over from Kathleen Kennedy when she decides to step down. https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywoo...twitter&utm_medium=social&mbid=social_twitter
That thought never occured to me, but it would be awesome if he did. He has the best handle on the franchise of anybody outside of George Lucas, probably because he worked with George Lucas on Clone Wars.
Filoni being comfortable at Lucasfilm is what I want to hear. As much as I would like to see Dave take over for KK, I think he is more valuable on the ground writing and, now, directing. KK stated she runs everything past him anyway, so I'd much rather see him continue creating and not supervising.
I don't think Filoni would be suited to running Lucasfilm. Kennedy's job has very little to do with the crafting of a story. She's a supervisor, ensuring that everything, from a single comic book to an entire movie, is being made on time and on budget. If Filoni became head of Lucasfilm, he would probably never write another SW story again, and I don't think that's really what anyone wants.
If he runs the company well then I'm ok with it. There are more ways to contribute to a franchise than only writing stories.
True, but I don't think that's where his strength lies. He's a great writer; that doesn't necessarily translate to making sure several dozen projects simultaneously come in on-time and under-budget.
Kennedy is running the business side of Lucasfilm, she isn't in charge of creative decisions other than who to hire. Filoni is a writer and should be in charge of story aspects. Putting him in charge of Lucasfilm wouldn't be using his strengths. This is how film studios normally work. The odd exceptions are Fiege who is an executive producer who happens to love the Marvel characters, he was the producer on X-Men who the other producers would ask about the comics.
Perhaps. However, he has been given greater and greater responsibility from Clone Wars into the Mandalorian, going from writer to executive producer. He has the possibility of growing in capability from his writing days. As I said, if he can demonstrate to run things well then why not trust him with more?
I'd be up for Filoni taking over from Kennedy if that means that he's too busy with the business side to screw up more of the creative side. I mean, he's done some good work. The Mandalorian is really good so far, and the best episodes of TCW can be amazing. But the bad episodes of TCW are some of the worst official stories in the franchise, Rebels was a mediocre kiddie cartoon and Resistance is ever worse. Now, Lucas can be blamed for some of the bad stuff in The Clone Wars, but Filoni is the one responsible for Space Aladdin and Baby's First Order shows. He definitely needs to be reigned in creatively, maybe just used as an idea man but with no actual authority (because he can do great stuff, he's just been doing less and less good stuff as time has gone by, kind of like Lucas, actually). But, if taking over for Kennedy means he has authority but isn't working on the creative side, I suppose that would work.
I find Rebels to be pretty compelling storytelling if you can get past the first season. I have been catching up with Resistance on Disney+ and yes, it is a bit more kiddie-oriented, but a little over 2/3rds of the way through the first season and its not bad. But, to each his own.
I loved rebels, start to finish, I think its the best Star Wars put on screen, movies included. Resistance isnt really him, he's a producer but others are in charge. Dave getting some credit, and growing in to a live action director and producer is a great thing!
Uprooting from Los Angeles to San Francisco was an easy choice for Filoni and his wife, Anne, a writer and teacher. For the next eight years, he worked side by side with Lucas, telling the battlefield stories of Anakin Skywalker before his transformation into Darth Vader, when he was fighting alongside Obi-Wan Kenobi and nurturing his own Padawan learner, the alien Ahsoka Tano, a young girl with distinctive white and blue “head tails” instead of hair, who was just as defiant and clever as her master. The metaphor couldn’t be more apt. Filoni was persuasive—he could push—and the trust he earned allowed him to translate Lucas’s vision in ways that strengthened them both. Dave Filoni is Ashoka, confirmed. Great article, thanks for sharing Turtletrekker.
As much as I want to see Dave being given a more influential role at the company, I don't think he'd be best suited to Kennedy's job. Indeed, I think he'd be wasted in a purely managerial position and I'd much rather seem him take up a role more equivalent to Kevin Feige's "Chief Creative Officer" position at Marvel.