New Dave Filoni 'Star Wars' Movie Reportedly A 'Mash-Up' Of Different Characters

The new Dave Filoni "Star Wars" movie that Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy announced at Star Wars Celebration will reportedly feature a "mash-up" of different characters.

The galaxy has become a pretty big place over the last few years, especially with the Disney+ live-action series exploring new characters in "The Mandalorian," "The Book of Boba Fett," "Ahsoka," and "Skeleton Crew," which all take place around the same time period.

It is possible that these characters - and even a few characters from the animated "The Clone Wars" and "Rebels" - will make an appearance in Filoni's new "Star Wars" movie.

Dave Filoni and his producing partner, Jon Favreau, recently sat down with Entertainment Weekly on their Star Wars podcast, Dagobah Dispatch, to talk about Filoni's movie, which is set after the events of "Return of the Jedi."

When asked if the characters featured in his new movie will be similar to what fans saw in the Avengers, Filoni replied, "We're in the right area code," adding, "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."

Filoni first started working with "Star Wars" creator George Lucas in 2008 to flesh out the animated series "The Clone Wars" before he and Favreau worked together to create "The Mandalorian," which recently wrapped up its third season.

"I think for a long time, as I've learned to work in this galaxy, it's a long play," Filoni explained. "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."

"The Mandalorian" takes place only five years after the events of "Return of the Jedi" and Filoni believes that there is a lot of material to explore during that time period. "Growing up with the original [films], Return of the Jedi was the end," Filoni said. "But then you're always like: But what happens next? And then when Episode VII was set so many years later, when I was a kid, I never would've thought it would've been that much later, but it made sense."

Filoni added, "It created an opening where you go, 'Wow so a lot of the things that we knew before are probably in there. How do we excavate that?'"

Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy also told Entertainment Weekly that she has a lot of confidence in Filoni and his vision, adding that there are "a lot of sources he's drawing from to see where we're going." It seems that Filoni might not only be drawing from Disney+ series, as Jon Favreau was quick to suggest.

"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 explained. "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."

But when it came to trying to figure out which characters to include, Favreau replied, "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."

"As we are getting deeper and deeper into this, you start to have to really map things out and figure out what that story is, and then have those characters fulfill what their growth cycle is and what their mythic hero's journey is," Favreau added. "Those things have to fit together well. Otherwise, it won't feel like Star Wars."

That approach to the creative journey was the same one that Favreau says George Lucas followed almost fifty years ago when he was first working on "A New Hope." "That's always been George's base," Favreau explained. "He's a student of Joseph Campbell. How does it fit into the narrative that has the hero's journey? And so as we have more and more characters line up, you have to figure out how those characters are arcing and if it feels ultimately like a Star Wars story."