You’d have to think that Dave Filoni sometimes pinches himself to make sure that he’s not imagining things, given that the lifelong Star Wars fan has ascended to become one of the most important behind the scenes figures in the entire franchise.
Having gotten his foot in the door as an animator, storyboard artist and director of several shows including King of the Hill, Kim Possible and Avatar: The Last Airbender, Filoni initially thought he was being pranked when George Lucas offered him a job. And after helming the feature-length Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the diehard supporter of a galaxy far, far away then focused his energies on episodic television.
The so-called ‘FiloniVerse’ now encompasses The Clone Wars, Rebels, Resistance and The Bad Batch, while he made the jump into live-action by teaming up with Jon Favreau to develop The Mandalorian, and he’s helmed more episodes of the show than anyone else. If that wasn’t enough, the roster has since expanded to put the duo in charge of The Book of Boba Fett and Ashoka as well, and Filoni is also Lucasfilm’s Executive Creative Director.
Mark Hamill took to social media this week and praised the man for no other reason than the fact that he seems to be a great guy who managed to secure his dream job, with the Luke Skywalker legend going so far as to call him George Lucas’ Padawan, as you can see below.
SHOUT OUT to Dave Filoni for no particular reason, other than being a wonderfully kind person, George Lucas' padawan & for confidently showing all us that "This Is The Way" #ForcefulFiloni pic.twitter.com/LQe09qCh7e
— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) June 7, 2021
It’s definitely a worthwhile comparison to make, especially when Filoni’s famously in-depth knowledge of Star Wars lore can reportedly only be matched by the creator of the entire mythology. Of course, Favreau has revealed in the past that Lucas sometimes likes to give Dave a hard time, but that’s par for the course with any mentor/protege relationship.
