So recently show runner Dave Filoni was interviewed by IGN and the topic of fan skepticism came up:
IGN: Right. There are always going to be those people -- I see them on the comment boards -- especially with the adult fans, where it's like, "Dark dark dark dark dark. It should always be darker."
Filoni: Of course, yeah.
IGN: So let's address that, because when Kilian [Plunkett] is saying, "This show is lighter than The Clone Wars”, what would you say to the people going, "Where's the dark stuff?!"
Filoni: For me, if I go back and look at the original Star Wars, I wouldn't call it dark. I think it has dark moments. I think Empire gets there, I think Jedi has some dark moments. But my intention with the storytelling is to be in that realm. I'll easily say, we are not going to be as dark as finding Darth Maul as a shell of his former self, on a junk planet, screaming, you know? That was dark even for Star Wars. I think the other thing too is I just want this to be Star Wars in the most classic sense -- a serialized television show. I want it to have its epic moments and its mythic moments. I want it to get to places where you know the villains are really villains. But for me at least to kind of map out this show, I think we'll start in a place, not unlike what we did in Clone Wars, which was that it was a bit more fun in the beginning. I think the bad guys still have their tone, but I think, since we're coming at it with a boy in the beginning, that it is a little bit lighter in tone. But then as the world kind of rises up around them and things get more serious, I think it allows us to bring everybody into that world, just like Luke did. Things get more and more progressively intense. But it's always with an eye on, how can we keep the flavor of Star Wars or Indiana Jones? It's going to be a very balanced show.
I would also say that it's different than the previous era of Clone Wars and Star Wars because we were really the only game in town. There wasn't almost anything else being made, certainly nothing else by George Lucas. Now we're looking at all types of Star Wars media coming out. I think that it all can't be the same. I would expect, as is a tradition in video games -- those things seem to be darker -- the new movies, what tone they'll have I don't know; maybe dark, maybe not dark. But I think there needs to be a range. There are other types of movies being made as well in Star Wars, and who knows what realm they'll go into. The good thing is, we're all on the same page at Lucasfilm... and I know more than I'm letting on. [Laughs] Obviously. But I just play it that way. No followup questions!
IGN: [Laughs] Yeah, yeah. I was thinking, ‘Suuuure, they never say anything to you about the new movies!’
Filoni: Yeah, I'm totally in the dark. [Laughs] But everything kind of needs to have it's place and space. I think that way you're addressing it in different mediums, in different formats. The nice thing I can say is, it's all more connected than it's ever been at Lucasfilm. Before, we would change something in Clone Wars and people would be like, "Why are you changing canon?" We're like, "Actually, we're not. This is the way George wants it." Now, that is a unified approach where I'm talking to several different people on different projects, and we're all aware of what each other's doing. We all get great ideas from each other and share ideas, so it's a much more unified effort. So our tone is classic Star Wars, very much I think, I'm hoping, A New Hope, because I find that it's probably the most balanced. I mean, Vader doesn't pull any punches. Certainly, Captain Antilles figured that out. But you still have things like Jawas. I love a movie that can encompass both of those things. I think that when we say "lighter tone," I just mean I hope it's in some ways funny. I think that everyone would agree that something that Marvel has done brilliantly is weave comedy into all of their action movies. They need that. I think with Clone Wars, we weren't nearly as good at that. It was very dark and serious most of the time. So I'm just looking for it to be more balanced now.