A 'New Republic' era film (live action movie by Dave Filoni) - a general discussion thread

Three New Star Wars Movies Announced at the official Star Wars website on April 7: “Dave Filoni’s [film] will focus on the New Republic, and close out the interconnected stories told in The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and other Disney+ series.”
 

'Filoni confirmed he would be involved in the writing process, although couldn’t say when filming would begin - but when asked what he could say about the story, did proffer the following information:

"Very little, very little. The way I’ve been describing it is, if you grew up when I did you’re aware of the post-Return of the Jedi era that was presented to me. The New Republic is not a new idea. That is not something The Mandalorian created. That’s an old idea, it’s been around a long time. There are just things in Star Wars that we all seem to know if we’ve been around it a long time. There have been a lot of tremendous creatives over the years that have been telling stories in the era that spans the 30 years that now ends with The Force Awakens. But there’s a large gap of time there.

Things aren’t that great when we begin The Force Awakens. So Jon and I looked at that time period, and when he knew he wanted The Mandalorian in it, one of the things I told him early on was, “Well, I have this epilogue in Star Wars: Rebels that’s kind of dealing with that time period,” which you’ve seen at the end with Sabina and Ahsoka going off. So, a lot of those threads start to come together, and then I looked at the bigger body of work that’s been done and what’s relevant, and a story will emerge out of that."’

^ from https://collider.com/dave-filoni-new-star-wars-movie-comments
 

Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni On What’s Next for Star Wars - an 18 minute video at the IGN YouTube channel.

Kathleen Kennedy on the Future of Star Wars | Star Wars Celebration 2023 - an 11 minute video at the IGN YouTube channel.

I find it a little disappointing how the 3 main series in the Mandoverse: The Mandalorian, Book Of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka (as well as any ideas and outlines from cancelled ‘Rangers Of The Republic’ series, and maybe even the new ‘Skeleton Crew’ series), are going to essentially be a rehabilitation project for the Sequel Trilogy?

Maybe even The Bad Batch too with the cloning stories there, and also possible nods and references to events and characters from The Clone Wars, Rebels, and even Resistance too.

Or taking story aspects, events, and characters from the EU and making them canon once again (often without mentioning or crediting the original EU author or source).

That the setting of the galaxy for the Sequel Trilogy was so poorly explained, and the underwhelming finale of it, including the last minute introduction of “the big bad” in TROS, now requires some kind of fixing or addressing by these Disney+ era shows? Similar to how to Clone Wars, The Clone Wars and Rebels sought to fix, or at least try to, lessen the damage of the poorly executed and jarring Prequel Trilogy films.

I think Dave Filoni has a lot on his hands to make this succeed. It will take something special for both the average movie-goer to understand, follow and enjoy: as well as satisfying everyone who has watched some of the various series in this Mandoverse so far. It should also be interesting to see if the once-planned “climactic story event” is part of this film, or will be in the one or more of the Disney+ series, as a way to introduce this “New Republic” film?

Good luck to him.
 

^ the very idea of this has a lot to answer for. In more ways than we could have possibly imagined!

I think he meant that Grogu learned that by himself through his own initiative, not that he must have learned it from Luke. Not convinced about that whole 2 year thing at all.

As far as we know Luke has never done any diplomatic work in his life. Beyond his failed attempt to not fight Vader before that whole darkside temptation/electrocution of course.

It sounds like Filoni kind of mourns the EU to a certain extent, but maybe I’m just reading something into his statement that isn’t there. I get the sense he appreciates the EU stories and wants to make a movie that tells some reworked version of one or more EU stories. But I guess he also wants to combine it with his Rebels plot lines.

It’s interesting to reflect on the fact that a live action retelling of most of the early EU stories from the 1990s was not possible for over two decades, since all those stories focus on the original cast who had aged beyond the roles. But now because we’re “living in the future”, those stories can actually be told in live action using deep-fake recreations of the OT cast. It’s certainly uncharted territory. So far, CGI recreations (and later deep-fakes) have been used for minor roles or cameos. But the day will soon come I’m sure when a starring role is entirely a deep-fake. A lot of people find this idea disturbing, but it will inevitably become more and more common as time goes on.

Channel72 said:

It sounds like Filoni kind of mourns the EU to a certain extent, but maybe I’m just reading something into his statement that isn’t there. I get the sense he appreciates the EU stories and wants to make a movie that tells some reworked version of one or more EU stories. But I guess he also wants to combine it with his Rebels plot lines.

It’s interesting to reflect on the fact that a live action retelling of most of the early EU stories from the 1990s was not possible for over two decades, since all those stories focus on the original cast who had aged beyond the roles. But now because we’re “living in the future”, those stories can actually be told in live action using deep-fake recreations of the OT cast. It’s certainly uncharted territory. So far, CGI recreations (and later deep-fakes) have been used for minor roles or cameos. But the day will soon come I’m sure when a starring role is entirely a deep-fake. A lot of people find this idea disturbing, but it will inevitably become more and more common as time goes on.

I think it’s more calculated than that. Why write new characters when you can use old ones? Less risk and more brand recognition. A mixture of TCW cameos and old characters from books is potent stuff. Is the Thrawn trilogy really the place to start now, or is it just a logical next step in their methodical mining of the old EU? As for deepfakes… yeah I have a bad feeling about this.

Mocata said:

I think it’s more calculated than that. Why write new characters when you can use old ones? Less risk and more brand recognition. A mixture of TCW cameos and old characters from books is potent stuff. Is the Thrawn trilogy really the place to start now, or is it just a logical next step in their methodical mining of the old EU? As for deepfakes… yeah I have a bad feeling about this.

I think it’s safe to predict that within 10 or 20 years, it will be possible to create an entire Hollywood-quality live action movie entirely using digital tools on a laptop. Then the floodgates will open and a trillion fan films of every possible permutation of Star Wars lore will engulf the Internet. The only difference between the endless stream of fan films (some of which will be of better quality than the official versions) and the official ones is that creators of fan films will not be able to profit directly from their films, because they do not hold a license to the IP. But fans will do it out of passion anyway, especially as technology improves to the point where a live-action Hollywood production can be digitally created with a simple script and some basic prompting. Then the entertainment industry will panic, and scramble to introduce regulation preventing this, but ultimately fail to meaningfully stop it.

But hey at least somebody can recreate the theatrical OT in 4K.

The writing and setting of Andor reminded me a lot of classical EU storylines. It would be awesome if the people behind the Filoniverse could take some notes from those. Hopefully getting Zahn himself as a consultant will be a promising start. He’s already written several canon Thrawn books and set the stage for interesting story developments there.

KumoNin said:

Thrawn. The other reason we like these characters, and the entire reason anybody is excited to see the blue guy is Zahn’s writing. The way he was written, and, in fact, how perfectly Zahn’s mystery-detective-plans-within-plans writing style lends itself to this type of character, is the reason I and others gasped at the name drop in that Mando S2 episode, it’s the reason live action Pellaeon made some people (ok maybe also me…) giddy.

That’s also why I’m excited to see Thrawn.

But it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that more people exist who only know Thrawn from the Rebels incarnation. And it’s very likely this is how Filoni will depict him. I haven’t seen much of Rebels, but the little I’ve seen or absorbed via osmosis feels like a very different vibe than Zahn’s military sci-fi-ish stories with their tech-centric plots involving cloning cylinders and cloaking devices and remote-controlled starships. Zahn’s Thrawn is always applying technology in innovative ways to further military objectives, very often to make up for what he lacks in conventional resources and manpower.

The Rebels version of Thrawn’s story involves giant wolves and magical space whales. I mean I guess that’s theoretically no more outlandish than ysalamiri, but Zahn’s ideas generally have well-defined parameters and serve very practical story purposes. I forgot the particular story-driven purpose of the space whales in Rebels, but I think it was just mostly created as a cool visual fantasy element to liven up a space battle.

Marooned Biker Scout said:

I find it a little disappointing how the 3 main series in the Mandoverse: The Mandalorian, Book Of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka (as well as any ideas and outlines from cancelled ‘Rangers Of The Republic’ series, and maybe even the new ‘Skeleton Crew’ series), are going to essentially be a rehabilitation project for the Sequel Trilogy?

Yep, you nailed it!

That is basically Filoni’s whole MO isn’t it, patching over things until people like it.

Mocata said:

That is basically Filoni’s whole MO isn’t it, patching over things until people like it.

It’s part of the reason I don’t get the adoration many have expressed for him.

Dave Filoni’s new Star Wars movie will feature a mash-up of different sources and characters

Get ready for an Avengers-style meetup on the big screen.

https://ew.com/movies/star-wars-movie-dave-filoni-jon-favreau-interview - with a 3 minute video of both talking about the film
 

“We’re in the right area code,” Filoni says. “We are definitely in the right space. I think it’s going to be a clamoring of characters saying, ‘How do I get in this picture?’ And that’s what Jon and I have been figuring out.”

“I think for a long time, as I’ve learned to work in this galaxy, it’s a long play,” Filoni says. “And if things go right, you get to do more of your story. Things I think have broken in a good way for us, and people have enjoyed the characters that we’ve been making. So certain opportunities came up the further we went along.”

“When I was younger, we didn’t have movies, but there were comic books, there were novels, things that are encompassed in the [expanded universe] or Legends,” Favreau says. “Clearly, there are decisions that have to be made to fit it all together, but for us, I think one thing we’re in agreement about is that the characters — as special as they are — the story has to drive what characters are.”

“We joke that it’s like we’re playing with action figures, like, ‘What’s in the box? Let’s play with what’s in the box!’ And that’s what you do when you’re playing and you’re a kid.”
 

Uh. I have a bad feeling about this. More use and twisting of the EU, for which they’ll be happy to take the credit, without actually crediting the original creatives. And more “it’s like we’re playing with action figures”, something repeated when they explained what they were doing for seasons 2 and 3 of the Mandalorian.

I hope I’m wrong, I hope it is a hit. With a good story, emotional weight and payoffs, all done with quality and a little bit of magic. Something more akin to Manadalorian season 1, and not later Mandalorians or Book of Boba Fett. Maybe we’ll get more insight for this with the Ahsoka series.

Cameos galore…that’s all we’re ever getting from here on out. Who needs stories and original characters when people freak out on just seeing an animated character in live action?

It’s really hard to create new, compelling characters, let alone to get people to watch them, especially in a franchise like this with so much historical baggage. Andor created at least two new compelling characters, which is amazing. Timothy Zahn did it as well in the 1990s. But… that’s pretty much it for post-Lucas Star Wars in my opinion (although I haven’t read most of the latter-EU or seen many of the cartoons, so maybe I’m missing out). I liked Seasons 1 and 2 of The Mandalorian, but I have to admit it wasn’t really because of the character work. But maybe IG-11 should get an Emmy.

God, Andor is so freaking awesome. I wish more people watched it so it would have more influence steering the future direction of Star Wars. But then, maybe if too many people watched it, the executives would start meddling with it, and start demanding they insert Baby Yoda into at least 2/3 of all scenes. Then we’d end up with Season 2 of Andor starting out, and Baby Yoda is just there with no explanation. Then after Cassian Andor is captured by the ISB and interrogated/tortured, we regularly cut back to Baby Yoda eating cookies, then back to the Imperial torture droid.

Emre1601 said:

“according to regular leaker MTTSH, the title of the movie will be Heir to the Empire”:

https://lrmonline.com/news/filonis-star-wars-film-to-be-titled-heir-to-the-empire-barside-buzz/

and the leaker themselves: https://twitter.com/MyTimeToShineH/status/1658472128189186049
 

I hope that is not the title. I can see it being the title. But I really hope it is not.

The same here. Nothing like retconning and ripping off from popular history as the creatives seem to be devoid of ideas and inspirations for new villains.

In my best Poe impression: “Somehow… Thrawn returned”.