Star Wars Episode 9 begins shooting today.
And I sit down with Dave Filoni to talk Clone Wars.
This is The Star Wars Show.
From the Lucasfilm headquarters in San Francisco, here’s your hosts, Andi and Anthony!
Hello and welcome to the Star Wars Show, the only Star Wars show on the internet that Lorem
ipsum dolor sit amet.
I’m sorry. What?!
What?
What did you just say?
I read what was on the screen.
That is Latin placeholder text.
Scott, did you finish the script?!
[Off camera] Huh? What?
Scott!
[Off camera] What?
Let’s see if the news is at least in the prompter.
Heh.
Ah, see!
Words are on the prompter.
Phew!
Thought I was going to have to rattle off all of this news off the top of my head.
Like we always do.
[Crickets sound]
The fourth and final season of Star Wars Rebels is available now on Blu-ray and DVD.
Extra features include the entire final season of Rebels Recon hosted by the wonderful and
talented Andi Gutierrez, whereas the Blu-ray has 3 behind the scenes featurettes and
6 episode commentary tracks featuring executive producer Dave Filoni.
Who, is on the show in a few minutes.
Synergy, baby!
For more on the release and Star Wars Rebels check out StarWars.com
Star Wars Episode 9 began shooting today at London’s Pinewood Studio.
The film reunites cast members Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Lupita
Nyongo, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Sutomo and Billie Lord with director
J.J. Abrams.
Also returning to the cast are Star Wars veteran actors Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, and
Billy Dee Williams reprising his role as Lando Calrissian.
Joining the cast this time around are Naomi Ackie, Richard E. Grant,...
Personal hero!
...and Keri Russell.
The role of Leia Organa will also once again be played by Carrie Fisher, using previously
unreleased footage shot for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Director JJ Abrams said in a statement,
That is really wonderful.
Yeah, I’m very happy.
I love that.
Mark Hamill took to twitter over the weekend to discuss Carrie Fisher with a heartfelt
statement, saying,
But the tweets celebrating the start of production on Episode 9 didn’t stop there.
Director JJ Abrams tweeted this morning,
Along with a trademark cryptic image from behind the camera and what looks like John Boyega smiling.
Analyze away internet.
Star Wars Episode 9 is due out in theaters in December 2019.
And for more breaking news from around the galaxy check out StarWars.com
Much to learn you still have.
Aaah, Weequays.
You know, the species that claims Honodo Onaka and his pirate crew, the Skiff guards, or
this Weequay who was named after Keira Knightley!
These wrinkly, sunburnt sentient beings first appeared on Jabba’s sail barge in Return
of the Jedi and later in his palace in the Special Editions.
They spend a lot of time with gangsters because the Hutt’s control their homeworld of Sriluur
and actually made a lot of them into slaves.
Weequays have tough leathery skin making them ideal for dangerous business.
They’re commonly employed as bounty hunters, bodyguards, and pirates, but they’re not
all shady characters.
This Weequay was a Jedi in Attack of the Clones, and Ak-Rev was a super cool drummer in the
Max Rebo Band!
And what pirate crew would be complete without some sort of animal companion?
Some weequays like to make pets out of Kowakian Monkey-Lizards and even train them to take
care of their dirty deeds.
Want to learn more about Weequay like what famous Lucasfilm movie inspired the name of
Hondo’s yacht?
Check out StarWars.com/MuchtoLearn.
[Crowd] Star Wars Show!!
[Crowd cheering]
Really glad we finally got some time with Dave Filoni cause you’re probably one of
the busiest guys in this building right now.
Pretty busy.
I hardly ever see you anymore.
So, tell me about what you’ve got going on.
Anything?
There’s a lot going on.
Any news that we should discuss?
Obviously now, more than one animated show.
Yeah.
Clone Wars is coming back.
Is it?
Yeah.
It is.
I know.
12 episodes coming on up.
You’ve been working on this for a while and I am so shocked and happy that it didn’t leak.
I know.
You got the reveal that you wanted.
Oh my gosh.
That was an effort.
Yeah.
I got to tell you that was an effort.
I just really happy that you got to experience it that way, that the fans got to experience it that way.
It was really powerful.
I wish I could have been in the room. I wasn’t there.
I just don't think anyone believed it was going to happen.
And that made it maybe easier to keep it a secret.
[Laughing]
Because even when we showed the trailer I think there was some people that didn’t
believe it was happening.
I wanted it to be a surprise kind of within the trailer.
They’d have to know this is really happening.
Even like down to the night before the panel I was reminding everybody on it that nobody knows.
You have to do the whole panel like this show is not coming back.
Everything has to be past tense.
No slip ups about, oh we just recorded this thing.
None of that, which would cause a gasp.
Even Amy Ratcliffe had no clue.
Amy had no idea?
She had no idea.
I think the biggest thing that helped was at the end of the trailer Matt Lanter just
went berserk with excitement.
I mean that’s how I wanted people to feel and Matt was kind of conveying it and bringing
everyone along with him in his excitement.
But the actor becomes a major part of the character.
You have to let them embody it.
You have to encourage them to be a big part of it.
And they’re such a wide variety of personalities.
From Sam Witwer, to Dee Baker, to Ashley.
And if we’re going to talk about character growth and arcs, we can’t not talk about Ahsoka.
I mean who started kind of a not popular character.
Absolutely not.
You know people didn’t understand her and now she’s legitimately one of the most beloved characters.
Any time she’s on screen people freak out.
Yeah, I think because they grew up with her too.
Yeah.
This generation is being very vocal about her.
One of her secrets superpowers is that she is Anakin adjacent.
And that relationship is everything because for the old fans it means insight into a character
they knew and for the young fans it means inside to a Star Wars that they are not as
familiar with.
So she is tremendously important bridge character that way.
And when we are working on her it's like I notice the shift as we went along.
But I know what happens in the end.
I have worked that out finally.
When it came up and when Carrie Beck really first started saying, I think we could find
a way to do more Clone Wars.
I wanted to make sure there was a story there worth telling that I could really get into
and find the emotional center of it.
What was the piece that people needed to see that they didn’t have?
The difficult thing I think as a storyteller in Star Wars is I often times can relate to
what the fans want to see because I want to see it too.
I just want to make sure that when I do these things they are done as well as they can be done.
And that takes time.
So last week at the end of the episode we put a call out to fans asking what Clone Wars
meant to them.
So now I’m curious what Clone Wars means to you.
Hah, gosh.
It was the greatest time sure for a lot of us, I think.
It was like a master class or getting your doctorate in filmmaking directly from George Lucas.
He was teaching us just what he liked.
Not so much about Star Wars.
Sometimes it was but it was really just about the way he thought about films, saw films,
films he watched.
And so it was the greatest kind of learning environment that I’ve ever had in this job
and I absolutely loved it.
I knew every day that one day it would be over so I never lost sight of that.
And I loved the people that I worked with.
And the fans.
I mean I know fans now for over a decade because of my relationship with the show.
When I don’t say things it’s not cause I’m trolling them really, though they say I am.
It’s because I’m trying to hold out my excitement to give them that experience, that
feeling that I think we all associate most with Star Wars.
Which is this euforia and this excitement.
When Obi-Wan says, use the Force Luke, and the theater erupts.
Those feelings are so rare now.
And that’s what I think is the greatest thing about telling these stories is you could
get people back to that place and bring people together in this place.
And I’ve always believed that Star Wars is something that brings people together.
Man, lets just keep this Clone Wars love fest going, shall we?
Yeah, sounds good to me.
As a brief reminder, last week we asked you to share what The Clone Wars meant to you
using the hashtag #CloneWarsSavedMe, and we got an overwhelming amount of responses.
Kendra Davis said Ahsoka helper her feel better about the way she looked, saying that seeing
a character that resembled her and others is always a great thing.
Continuing the Ahsoka love fest, @CallMeSnips said Ahsoka gave her strength to make a difficult
decision to move across the country, while Moira has not one but two Clone Wars tattoos.
That is dedication.
Ange Longo said the show helped her enjoy life more, George Stebbins learned the very
important lesson that you can hate a new character and then learn to love her over her years
of stellar character development.
Hm.
@Rosa2187, @KennyBechtel, @RexOnLeave, and countless others all shared stories about
how Clone Wars was their first introduction to Star Wars and the basis for a lifelong
passion for the fandom.
Turns out, The Clone Wars were the friends we made along the way.
Truer words were never spoken.
If you have time we sincerely hope you go check out the hashtag, there are tons of stories
we wish we could continue to share here.
And as always, remember to like the video, subscribe to the channel, follow us on Twitter,
Facebook, and Instagram, download the Star Wars app.
Which somebody reached out to let me know that there is now a Thamm emoji in there.
So, download the Star Wars app.
Talk to us on the community tab on YouTube, and remember, there are only 253 more sleeps
until Star Wars Celebration Chicago.
Not that we’re counting or anything like that.
I have already ran out of time to pack.
I’m freaking out.
Thanks for watching and may the Force be with you.
There’s no time left.
I know.
It is so scary.
It is upon us.
I tend to roll.
You gotta roll.
Cause you get less wrinkles.
If you’re folding you’re a sucker.
We’ll so a whole thing on how to pack next week.
Come on, Frank.
[Off camera] Ready, 3, 2…
Okay, now make a face.
Boop, boop, boop de doop.
Star War.