He’s progressed from a director at Nickelodeon to the final student of George Lucas, guiding the expanded galaxy through The Clone Wars and Rebels to his current position, executive producer and occasional director of the first live action Star Wars series The Mandalorian and WIRED took the chance to chat with Dave Filoni (looking very dapper in the photo – how long before we have to call him David?) about his top ten most iconic Star Wars moments.
We kick off with a classic scene from The Empire Strikes Back, the film which most closely informs his work on The Mandalorian.
Yoda Raises the X-Wing
Luke’s spaceship has crashed and sunk under the swamps of the planet Dagobah, where the Jedi Master Yoda is in hiding. Yoda tells Luke to use the Force to raise it; Luke fails. Yoda does not. “The staging is perfect, the music is perfect, and Mark Hamill, as he so often does, just sells this moment of magic,” Filoni says. “It’s a perfect Jedi lesson, a perfect Jedi moment, something we’re getting for the first time, this knowledge that using the Force, being a Jedi, is not simply about fighting with a lightsaber.”