Dave Filoni Reminisces About Carl Weathers, Says He Is Excited for Jon Favreau Directing ‘The Mandalorian & Grogu’
Dave Filoni was honored with the George Pal Memorial Award on Sunday at the 51st Saturn Awards. In the aftermath, he spoke to Entertainment Tonight‘s Ash Crossan (hat tip to r/StarWarsLeaks) about Carl Weathers and made a brief mention of the upcoming Mandalorian & Grogu movie (see the video at the bottom of the story).
When Crossan brought up Weathers and asked Filoni to share his experience working with him for the past few years, he said:
“He was the best, I mean. I don’t know how to describe it. The fact that I got to meet him, to know him. He was one of the people that… When I was directing the first episode of The Mandalorian, he was one of the first people I directed. And he’s such an exceptional director. So I’m learning on the job from some of the greatest people and he’s great on and off camera. Jon and I were thrilled with what he did as Greef Karga and then as an episode director for us, it made us so happy that he could be part of our team on that side of the camera. He was so enthusiastic about it every day.
My best memory of him is when we were at Celebration for Mando season 1 and he came out on stage like Apollo Creed saying ‘I want you, I want you!’ And just the energy, the power that he carried in his stature, in his voice. I mean, it’s rough, we’re gonna miss him dearly. But knowing he was such a great person and that he gave so much of himself to so many people… His legacy will continue on in ways we can’t even imagine.”
The conversation then turned to the recently announced The Mandalorian & Grogu, though Filoni remains tight-lipped on that one. When asked if this means that there will be no season 4 of the show, he said:
“There’s so much spinning in the galaxy right now. You know me better than to commit to any one thing. No mind trick works on me. I’m excited about what we’re doing right now, I think it’s gonna be great. Obviously, with Jon at the helm, it’s gonna be fantastic. And he’s so well-studied in Star Wars that he’s got such a great shorthand, and I love collaborating with him. I’m just excited to share the future of what we’re doing.”
Dave Filoni is busier than ever at Lucasfilm. He was promoted late last year to Chief Creative Officer and along with co-writing and executive producing The Mandalorian & Grogu, he’s also developing the second season of Ahsoka. After that, he’ll move on to his big-screen live-action debut, an untitled film that will culminate all of the New Republic-era stories. No release dates have been set for any of these projects.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
