Dave Filoni is the mastermind behind many successful recent Star Wars projects, including Star Wars: Clone Wars, Star Wars: Rebels, and more. He is the current creative director for Star Wars, who has influenced the series in a positive way with shows like The Mandalorian. More recently, Star Wars Ahsoka has been a major hit, which was a great opportunity for Filoni to bring his animated characters into the live-action Mandoverse.
In an interview with The Direct, Eric Steelberg, who was the cinematographer for Star Wars Ahsoka, shared his insight on working with Dave Filoni. He talks about his approach to Ahsoka and the challenges they faced while shooting.
Ahsoka Cinematographer Opens Up About Dave Filoni
Eric Steelberg said that Dave Filoni did not think of Ahsoka as a continuation of the previous shows. Instead, he wanted the show to be its own thing. The only shots that were copied were of Sabine and the mural in Episode 2.
You know, honestly, as far as the things that he told me and the conversations I had with him, no, I mean, we were treating this as its own thing. A new thing. And though this show has its roots in animated series, it very much is its own thing and… in terms of live-action goes, we’re starting over with, ‘Let’s look…’ In visual storytelling, practical, live-action shooting doesn’t have many things related to… the style of the way you do animation. So, beyond the exact shots we copied at the end of Episode 2 with Sabine and the mural, there was nothing specifically referenced in that way. It was more discussions about themes and tone that we had.
He also mentioned that nothing got cut from the show, and everything they shot for the series made it into the final cut. Here, he highlighted Grand Admiral Thrawn and Anakin Skywalker’s return as some of the show’s coolest moments.
No, I mean, everything we shot is in the final cut. And I mean, honestly, every episode that I worked on has such great stuff in it. The ones that were given to me, I was more than happy with the content and the opportunities that I got to do. I mean, Thrawn’s arrival and Hayden’s introduction are some pretty cool things to be able to figure out. So, that was pretty exciting and had my hands full with those things. But, it was pretty great. And I’m glad there were, in the other episodes that I didn’t do, there were also fantastic things happening, obviously. Like Episode 5 and the finale also come to mind. Just really special.
When talking about Ariana Greenblatt’s younger version of Ahsoka, Eric Steelberg said that he had no input on this version of the character since he was busy working on episodes 1, 2, 4, 6, and 7.
I didn’t have any input on that, to be quite honest. They were shooting that while I was shooting… Episode 4. And then the shooting of Episode 5, there was a little bit of overlap. So, I had my hands quite full with the other things. But I got to– I mean, I was on set for some of that stuff. But yeah, I wasn’t really involved in as much as… it would have been fun to be.
Will there be an Ahsoka Season 2?
Based on the ending of the first season of Ahsoka, there is a lot of potential for a second season to be made, which will carry on the character’s story. Fans have argued whether or not Ahsoka Tano will make her way back to the original Star Wars galaxy, and if so, how she might do it.
There are a lot of questions to be answered, but considering the Season 1 finale had low viewership, it might be possible that we never get a sequel for it, but there's a very low chance this happens. Ahsoka Season 2 is "more of a reality in the conversation," according to Deadline, and according to a reliable scooper, Season 2 is "a go." Anyway, we hope Dave Filoni considers creating the second season for Ahsoka soon.
Ahsoka season 1 is available to stream on Disney+.
