One thing that stood out for me in every interview I was lucky enough to be a part of during the Rogue One Press Junket is how much each and every person we interviewed said that they were so excited to have been a part of this amazing franchise. More so then just another job for them, it was a true honor to be a part of something they’ve loved all of their lives.
Dave Filoni, executive producer of Disney XD’s Star Wars Rebels was no exception. Prior to interviewing Dave Filoni we were lucky enough to watch two episodes of Star Wars Rebels, the two NEW episodes that will air THIS Saturday 1/7, at 830/730 CST on Disney XD. These episodes loosely tie into Rogue One and introduce Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera. I absolutely cannot stress enough how much every Star Wars fan in your home needs to watch this show, if they don’t already!!
I am happy to be able to share with you this interview, Dave Filoni’s views on working with Forest Whitaker, how he creates this family friendly show within the Star Wars galaxy, how much he values the time he got to work with George Lucas and much more!
However, before you dive into this interview recap, be sure to watch this trailer from Star Wars Rebels –
Do you take more joy into kind of creating your own storyline? Or do you look forward to the points/parts when you can tie into the existing storyline?
I never really have a huge feeling about tying in. The Star Wars universe was great before I got there, it’ll be great long after I’m gone. That’s just how I feel about this, it’s not my story. I’m privileged to be in a position where I get to add to it. I’m very grateful for that. But when I look at the work we’ve done, in animation especially, and the characters that we’ve added with Captain Rex, Chopper, Ezra, Sabine, Kanan and Hera, adding those characters can give us dimension in ways that the franchise didn’t have before. Especially when you get to female characters.
I think it’s telling the stories that have been long overdue. And so we’ve been telling the stories and adding dimension to these characters. That’s the great part. And it’s fun when you have a tie-in but I like it when it’s more of a wink. It’s not something that was ever missing, if it was important, they would have done it. So I’ve always kinda looked at it that way. And I learned a lot of that from my years of working with George. So it’s fun to do, but you have to be careful that don’t overdo it, that your fandom doesn’t get in the way of telling a good story. “
Talk a little bit about Forest Whitaker on-board.
It was a huge benefit to us. We have an attitude about the characters. Which is, if the person that originates the role, the person, especially on screen, we want as much continuity for the audience as possible. So –
He [Forest] is a very big Star Wars fan and a lot of these actors do [these roles] as much because of the opportunity because they love it.
And so when they say the character’s going continue, they absolutely would like to continue being the character. They don’t really care what form it’s in. And so it’s always exciting when we have people come and maintain their character. You have great continuity. They’re always incredibly gracious and super fun to work with. It might not be the last one you see in that regard, on REBELS, afraid of a spoiler. But I can say that. Don’t want to get in trouble.
But he was fantastic, a really great actor. He doesn’t need a lot of advice. I just got to put him into place and tell him what’s going on. And he’s just fantastic.
So it was great to work with him and it’s added to a long list of incredibly wonderful performances that we’ve had in Star Wars across the board. Not just on Rebels, but across the board. I just love that they want to do it.”
You did a great job of creating a parent and kid-friendly animated feature. How hard is it to balance that?
I appreciate that because it is a goal of mine. When I talked to George he would always says he created Star Wars for kids. That was the big thing. When I was a kid it was a great thing because my parents liked it. It’s not that they didn’t like everything else but they were very big into opera, very big into the symphony – very big into those types of stories. And there is a great relationship between those stories and what Star Wars presented. So it wasn’t talking down.
And there were a lot of things to talk about, as a family. Characters that we could relate to. So I think especially in the beginning, a lot of fans would come up to me and say, “Dave, why are you making REBELS for kids?” ‘Cause that’s such a perplexing question to me. ‘Cause I would say to them well, when did you first watch Star Wars? When I was six, and it was the greatest experience I ever had. And I’m like, okay. So my whole goal is never to take that experience away from kids, is to involve everybody in it, to make it a place where the best compliment we can give for the series is that it’s something that the family watches together.
And I’ve had parents tell me they watch it with their kids. There are some challenging things we get too, especially when you deal with the Jedi. Things get dark at times. But you always have to monitor that, you know, it’s like fairy tales have frightening moments in them. Otherwise when you shine bright and things are good all the time, it doesn’t shine as well. I was raised reading Tolkien, THE HOBBIT and things of that nature. C.S. Lewis and there are scary parts in those books. But then when you come through, I mean, Darth Vader is intimidating. Everybody says, “Oh, Darth Vader, put Darth Vader on,”I’m like, okay. But he’s scary.” I used to be a little kid and freak myself out just thinking of how he breathes.
But that’s what you want, kids to be afraid of the bad guys, because they’re evil. And they recognize that. And so I just always think of those stories I had as a kid and those relationships I had. And I try to make something that’s not as much for myself but for my younger self. But my older self will still watch it and be like, that’s cool. It’s a delicate balance. Because I see honestly, in today’s world, I see a danger in a lot of the fans that have grown up. You kind of have a generation of filmmakers now, they’re all fans. More than you ever had before, I think.
And they’re very vocal about being fans – which is great. It’s great because they have the understanding of why the material is important. But there’s a danger of trying to take the material and accidentally change it into being for them now. Their 40-year-old self. And you see that kind of in a lot of different franchises out there, that things get darker. And you go – but that’s not what I remember I liked as a kid. But there’s that impulse to say like, yeah, but now I would do this. And wouldn’t that be cool?
But you just always have to remember, Star Wars is a story ultimately the original trailer says, A boy and a girl in a galaxy. Which is the big opening of the door, and a wonderful thing. And a magic thing. And the adventure. So I just try to maintain that.”
What was it like working with George Lucas?
Oh, it’s fantastic. It’s the greatest education I could have asked for, in what I do. It was like going to film school on a daily basis with George Lucas. And he is incredibly knowledgeable, he’s incredibly patient. I had to earn that relationship; I had to earn the things I got to do. The challenge in Clone Wars was to learn how to do this his way. Show him that we could do it as a group.
And then he would let go of it more and more, which he absolutely did as we went on with the series. But it was very challenging; he absolutely knows what he’s doing. If I left the tiniest shot a couple frames long, he would watch it, and I’d be like, oh no, I see. Because you know, you must have the experience, you’ll never notice as many mistakes as you have made until you are sitting next to the person you need to show it to. So we’d edit an episode all over and over and over again. And he’d come and sit down with my editor and I’d be like, ohhhhhhh, why didn’t we fix that?
It was a great experience. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything. And everything that he taught me I recall, I wrote down. And I keep teaching that to people today, no matter who it is, that I come across in the story of Star Wars saga. Obviously I’ve added my own ingredients to what I do. But I always try to approach it from that perspective that I have. And that’s why I’m not trying to make my version of Star Wars. Though as the years go on, I suppose that’s inevitable. But I’m trying to remain true to the point of view that he had, that he wanted for these characters.
Like I’ve said before, I’m just a part of it. But I have a job to maintain the integrity of this thing [Star Wars], to keep it special. As special as it was for me growing up. So that’s the way I see the goal. And hopefully we have achieved that. I’m so far very pleased with Rebels and how it’s evolved. And I think that by the end, it’ll be something that fits nicely in the Star Wars galaxy.”
How far out do you work [on the series]?
I’m so far ahead now, frighteningly far ahead. It’s not as far ahead as when we worked on Clone Wars. We would practically work at three seasons simultaneously. But have a season that was being aired and color corrected, I’d have a season that was still in animation. And I’d have the story and shooting it. And then I have a season that was in development, in script. This [Rebels] is a little more like two. One is usually coming to an end and another one is well on its way.”
Make sure to tune into Star Wars Rebels –
back THIS Saturday 1/7/17 at 8:30/7:30c on Disney XD!
Be sure to check out STAR WARS REBELS via their social media outlets;
What an awesome experience. I can’t imagine how much fun it would be to having anything to do with the Star Wars franchise.
OMG! How awesome is that!
Great interview. So glad you got to do it.
What a great interview. I’d love to see this. Thanks for posting!