Dave Filoni might be a Star Wars veteran today, but he earned his stripes working alongside franchise creator George Lucas on Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series. Given Lucas’ limited involvement with the franchise after the prequels, Filoni was mostly responsible for the show’s writing.
During an interview, Filoni opened up about Lucas’ hands-on involvement in the animated series, citing the example of one villain’s storyline. Filoni revealed that Lucas personally asked him to amp up the character’s arc in future episodes. Here is what Filoni had to say about Lucas’ role in giving one Clone Wars villain a badass arc.
Dave Filoni Revealed How Personally Involved George Lucas Was in One Clone Wars Villain’s Storyline
Dave Filoni served as the supervising director and primary showrunner for Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series. It was created by George Lucas, marking the franchise’s second foray into animation following the now de-canonized 2003 series.
Ahead of the show’s fourth season, Filoni sat down for a conversation with Den of Geek, where he was asked about Lucas’ involvement in the animated series, particularly since the latter had taken a backseat from the franchise after the prequels.
George is playing with his universe and often asks us to take a character, like Ventress, and make a story arc for them.
Filoni made the above statement, revealing that Lucas was behind the story arc of Asajj Ventress.
In the series, Ventress’s character arc is filled with loss and grief, as she goes on to become the apprentice of Count Dooku. Moreover, the character has gained reverence for her multi-faceted character arc, and Filoni’s revelation of Lucas indirectly being responsible for it just makes it even better.
Dave Filoni Talked About the Restrictions on Using Characters For Clone Wars
During the same interview, Filoni also revealed that Lucas met with him once a year to map out the storylines for the upcoming season. Filoni noted how Lucas got to tackle some of the stories and characters from his franchise from an angle the films did not allow.
As a result, Filoni was asked whether there were any restrictions on the animated series, regarding which characters can and cannot be used. In response, the showrunner stated:
Not much is out of bounds. George is pretty bold in terms of stories or characters.
Filoni used the example of Boba Fett, explaining that Lucas wanted certain characters to be treated with care, especially when it came to keeping them interesting and fresh.
On the other hand, Filoni added that stories of newer characters, such as Ahsoka weren’t set in stone. Ahsoka would later make her live-action debut in The Mandalorian, before headlining her own series, also created by Filoni, proving his words true.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars is streaming on Disney+.
