‘Star Wars’ Animation Writer Henry Gilroy Talks George Lucas, Darth Maul, and Annoying Show Notes
Henry Gilroy was part of the furniture on the Star Wars animated scene for some time. The writer worked with both George Lucas and Dave Filoni on the animated series The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels for years.
He hasn’t worked on a Star Wars project since Rebels ended in 2018, but he told a bunch of interesting stories in a fascinating interview with SlashFilm — mainly, what it was like working with George Lucas, how he brought Darth Maul to life (at one point he was going to become General Grievous), and some interesting notes he used to get before and after the Disney takeover.
Dave Filoni has given us some great stories about working with George Lucas in the past, and Gilroy’s are no different. He starts off with a simple anecdote about how Lucas originally intended to leave them to make The Clone Wars by themselves — “I’m retired. I might see you guys once a year, twice a year maybe. You guys are making this. I’m not going to be around.” — believing they were just making a simple cartoon, before realizing the show could be much more than that. Once he did, he apparently told Filoni and Gilroy: “Oh, you guys are making cinema.” From there, The Clone Wars became the show we recognize today.
Gilroy also weighs in on Lucas’ decision to bring Darth Maul back from the dead. Filoni has already spoken of his surprise at being asked to bring back someone who had been bisected in The Phantom Menace, and it seems that Gilroy was of a similar mind. Filoni broke the news to him, and they didn’t have a lot of time to make it work.
He is like, ‘Yeah, so yeah, George wants to bring back Maul.’ I’m like, ‘I knew he was going to do that. I knew it. I knew it.’ Because, the reason why is, George likes to see the things that he created. And his ideas are awesome, so you can’t argue with it.
They only gave me eight pages, because literally it was like, ‘We don’t have time to do a full epic thing’.
According to SlashFilm, it was Gilroy’s idea for Maul to survive being cut in half through pure hatred alone. He also adds some other details about how he survived on Naboo and got taken to the junk planet that Savage Opress discovers him on.
But then there was this toxic waste, he’s kind of soaking in, and it cauterized his wounds, because it’s so burning. And then he gets put in a garbage compactor and taken to the garbage planet. And George liked it. He’s like, ‘Oh, that’s good.’ So I’m like, ‘Oh, all right.’
A particularly surprising anecdote was that George Lucas was considering adding to General Grievous’ backstory, changing it so that Maul was actually the being behind Grievous’ armor plating the whole time. Thankfully, that didn’t come to fruition.
It made sense. He’s cut in half and he’s in this robot body or whatever. I’m glad that Grievous is his own thing anyway, but I thought it was interesting that the concept guys almost talked George into that.
Not only did Gilroy help resurrect Maul, he also got to finish his story once and for all in Star Wars Rebels. He spoke to SlashFilm about how he planned that fateful final face-off with Obi-Wan Kenobi on Tatooine. He knew it was important to show they had changed over time since their prequel-era clashes.
We saw these guys at their peak in ‘Clone Wars’ when they were fast and sharp. And now they’re these older guys and they’re just not… It’s not going to be the same thing.” So the fight is rather quick, thought out, planned, more meticulous, most of the fighting is being done in their head before they actually ever fight.
Ultimately, the writer stays very humble about his role in enhancing Maul’s legacy in animation:
I don’t think about my part in it so much. I’m glad that people are touched by this and like it.
Gilroy has a more amusing anecdote from his time writing The Clone Wars animated movie. When writing scenes in Jabba’s Palace, he wanted to include a rancor in the pit below Jabba, but George wasn’t a fan.
I put a Rancor, another Rancor monster, in the basement. I’m like, ‘Well, everybody, every Hutt has a monster in their basement.’
George immediately vetoed this idea and began to tease Gilroy a bit.
‘I want to put below the Rancor, the Rancor has a grid, a screen, and then below it there are other creatures down there that eat the rancor poop.’ And I’m like, ‘What?’ And he is like, ‘Yeah.’ And he says, ‘We’re going to call those Gilroys.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, thanks George. Thanks a lot. Great.’ So lucky, they never made that into a toy.
Thankfully, the interview mentions that George Lucas always went to bat for the creatives in disputes with other parts of Lucasfilm. He told Filoni and Gilroy that if they were forced to cut anything from an episode, they’d just include the full uncut version in the DVDs. When marketing or licensing tried to get something included in the show, Lucas would block the request so the writers and animators could do what they wanted. One time, someone asked to include something in a shot to help sell some toys, but he said no.
George basically called and said, ‘Never contact them again.’ So he forbid the toy people from ever contacting Dave and I, and his explanation to us was, ‘You guys make great stories, let them make the toys after.’
Nobody’s going to say no to George Lucas. It’s awesome. He’s like your plus-99 shield, any barbs just bounce off.
Gilroy also mentioned that George Lucas’ natural distaste for repeating things he’s done before means that he never would have approved The Force Awakens or The Rise of Skywalker, for better or worse.
If I’d pitched those stories to George, he would’ve fired me. He would’ve just said, ‘You’re fired. I already did those.’
Star Wars Rebels fans might remember the show starting out with a much lighter tone in its first season. According to Gilroy, some Disney executives had their own ideas about what the show could be in order to appeal to a younger audience. Thankfully, he was able to bat them away, including one early concept of Ezra riding a Chopper-esque droid like a skateboard.
At one point I had to send my responses to the Lucasfilm executive before they went to Disney. I said my job at Lucasfilm is to protect the ‘Star Wars’ brand, not the Disney brand. And at the time, there was a difference of that and what they wanted that to be.
I hated that image from the beginning. It’s so poochy [the one-off ‘Simpsons’ character]. It’s extreme Ezra to the max. So I made a commitment to myself. I’m never going to have Ezra riding his droid like a skateboard. Droid’s not a freaking skateboard.
Thankfully, once Disney realized the show needed to mature with its audience, they stopped giving notes on tone, although they did still worry that some of the darker and more heartbreaking moments would be too rough on the audience.
It was more like, ‘Can you add a Chopper jet gag here?’ We get notes like that. I think whenever you talk down to kids though, they know that you’re talking down to them. They don’t like it.
However, by the end of the series, it was clear to Gilroy that Disney realized just how special Rebels was. He hints that there were plans to bring these characters into live-action even as he was writing the final season:
They were like, “Oh right. You guys have created something really special here. People love these characters and they’re going to be in the TV series. Live action series.” So that part is really rewarding.
Hopefully, Gilroy will come back to Star Wars one day. His writing has helped shape much of Star Wars‘ modern storytelling, not only enhancing Darth Maul’s character but creating beloved new ones that fans can’t wait to see in live-action. That’s one hell of a legacy.
Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.
