Even ‘The Last Jedi’ haters can approve of Rian Johnson pushing Dave Filoni into live-action ‘Star Wars’

Dave Filoni has come a long way. He made his mark directing episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender before moving to Lucasfilm to helm The Clone Wars. Since then he’s only grown in stature, making the leap to live-action with The Mandalorian and going on to shape the course of Disney Plus Star Wars.

Now, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Filoni has revealed that The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson encouraged him to explore live-action and helped guide him on the best way to do it. Filoni said Kathleen Kennedy was always open to the idea and he visited most of the ongoing Star Wars sets to see how it’s done:

“Kathleen Kennedy and I talked from the very beginning of her coming into Lucasfilm about whether there would be opportunities for me to experiment with live-action or try it. And she really worked at coming up with a plan to educate me and get me involved. I visited J.J. [Abrams] on The Force Awakens, I visited Gareth Edwards [on Rogue One] and I visited Rian on [The Last Jedi].”

But while it seems that Abrams and Edwards merely let him observe them at work, Johnson took Filoni under his wing:

“Rian was the one who shoved me up front, sticking lenses in my hand and really getting me immersed in it, and so I still talk with him to this day. He’s obviously a very talented filmmaker, and I was just very fortunate to be in such an environment where I could sit and listen and learn.”

Whatever your problems with The Last Jedi (and lord knows fans love picking over those bones…) we can at least be thankful that Johnson’s guidance helped birth The Mandalorian, which has blossomed into its own ‘Mando-verse’ encompassing The Book of Boba Fett and soon Ahsoka.

After the dreadful The Rise of Skywalker things didn’t look great for the franchise, though the release of The Mandalorian‘s first season at around the same time showed fans that at least some parts of Lucasfilm could still deliver the goods.

Filoni isn’t taking the directorial reins in The Mandalorian‘s third season, though he has writing credits on two episodes and is clearly one of the major creative forces behind Din and Grogu’s ongoing story. Fingers crossed he sticks with Star Wars for some time yet, but we just hope that one day he gets a movie of his own to really show off his newfound skills.

The Mandalorian airs Wednesdays on Disney Plus.