It’s come to this. Quite frankly, the rest of this list almost feels inconsequential since it’s so very easy to picture Disney making a splashy announcement in the coming months, revealing that Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni will be taking over as a two-headed monster as the presidents of Lucasfilm. Yes, this does technically extend the list to six people instead of five, but setting that aside, the Favreau and Filoni combo makes more sense than anything else. It’s borderline bound to happen.
Favreau, for his part, has done remarkable things at Disney. For one, he directed “Iron Man,” the movie that kicked off the MCU as we know it. He’s also directed massive hits like “The Jungle Book” and “The Lion King” before heading up “The Mandalorian,” which may well be the most roundly well-liked “Star Wars” project of the Disney era. Rather crucially, he collaborated closely with Filoni, known best as the man behind “The Clone Wars,” on that show.
As for Filoni, he was essentially the heir apparent to Lucas and was taken under the “Star Wars” creator’s wing during the development of “The Clone Wars.” In the years since then, Filoni has proven himself as knowledgeable as anyone when it comes to “Star Wars.” Again, he’s already the Chief Creative Officer at Lucasfilm, plus he now has experience in live-action storytelling thanks to his work on shows like “The Mandalorian,” “The Book of Boba Fett,” and “Ahsoka” (the latter of which he created). With “The Mandalorian” and its spinoffs, he and Favreau have also demonstrated their ability to build out a universe. On top of all that, Favreau knows the movie side of things as well as anyone, and is currently directing “The Mandalorian & Grogu” for a 2026 theatrical release.
Their powers combined, Favreau and Filoni seemingly have everything Disney needs to bring “Star Wars” into the future. They would, very importantly, likely be a popular choice amongst fans as well. If Las Vegas had betting odds on this situation, this would be the safest bet.
A couple of my colleagues spoke about this, along with a ton of other movie and TV news, on today’s episode of the /Film Daily podcast:
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