Fourteen months ago, Lucasfilm announced that a new Star Wars movie from Dave Filoni, the creator of Ahsoka and Star Wars: Rebels was in development and would act as a crossover event film for the various live-action Star Wars series he’s been a producer on – The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka and Skeleton Crew. Since that announcement, word on the development on that flick has been quite quiet, but now, Dave Filoni has shared an update on where he’s at in the process.
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Speaking to the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast alongside Ahsoka stars Rosario Dawson and Hayden Christensen as part of a for your consideration campaign for the Ahsoka series, Dave shared an update on his highly anticipated crossover film and the second season of Ahsoka.
Filoni revealed to the podcast that he works in “long threads” and likes to know where the story is going to go and what the outcome of that story should be and added that this is how he worked on past stories he’s told such as Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels. Filoni shared that the film is currently in a “normal development point” for him and that writing on Ahsoka season two has helped him with the development of his movie as he now has a clearer idea of where things are going to go in that film. However, Dave Filoni did add that his full focus is clearly on the second season of Ahsoka.
You can read Filoni’s full quote from the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast below.
“Very exciting stuff. Very exciting stuff. I work in very long threads and for me, telling a story, I always have to know where is this going? What’s the outcome of this going to be? So fans that have followed my work know this about ‘The Clone Wars’. When I started ‘The Clone Wars’ I had a good idea of how it was going to end. It changed a bit as we went on, but it’s still fairly relative. I didn’t know Darth Maul was going to be in it, that was a George [Lucas] curveball. But it’s George, so he’s allowed to do that. I knew how ‘Rebels’ was going to end. I, because I’ve been writing ‘Ahsoka’ season two, things have clicked and I have a much better idea about there things are going to go. I will say I have an opening [for the film] that I really like quite a bit. I’m very excited about it for that picture. I’m excited about the potential of just doing it. But right now my focus is very clearly on season two [of Ashoka] as well as the rest of the galaxy and how it’s spinning. But I am excited and it’s funny because every now and then there’ll be something I get where someone says what my movie is about online and I’ll be like, ‘Oh my god, that’s interesting, I should read that and see if there’s any good ideas in there.’ But I never do, I actually stay away, I’m good at staying away from a lot of that stuff. But I love that the fans imagine and I love that they’re excited about it. I’m excited about it, but you know, one foot in front of the other right now though. I think, for me, it’s going well. It’s at a normal development point in the way that I make these stories happen. And so we’ll see, it’s been fun to dive into. And working with Jon [Favreau] on his movie [The Mandalorian and Grogu] and that’s exciting. And all the other things that we’re [Lucasfilm] developing – it’s different for me now than what it was before because now I’m involved in everything.”
Filoni did not provide any insight as to when the second season of Ahsoka may release or his untitled Star Wars movie. It’s unlikely that the second season of Ahsoka will begin filming this year, but if it did, it probably wouldn’t be until the tail end. This likely means we likely won’t see the second season of Ahsoka until 2026 at the earliest.
Though Filoni’s movie was announced well over a year ago, Lucasfilm’s original plans in terms of their theatrical slate has changed. Initially it seemed as if the plan was to release an untitled Rey Skywalker film first, Filoni’s film a year later, and the James Mangold’s Dawn of the Jedi movie. Now Lucasfilm intendeds on releasing The Mandalorian and Grogu in May 2026, a film that wasn’t on the cards when they made three film announcements at Star Wars Celebration last year, as the fourth season of The Mandalorian series morphed into a film following the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Development on the Rey Skywalker movie hasn’t gone as smoothly as one would like it seems, though it’s apparently still the favourite to release in December 2026.
Jeff Sneider previously revealed earlier in the year that Filoni’s crossover event film likely wouldn’t arrive until 2028, five years after Lucasfilm announced the project. As time goes on, that window seems for likely and reasonable, especially as Filoni is currently writing the second season of Ahsoka and giving it his full focus. Sneider more recently revealed via his podcast, The Hot Mic, that the untitled Rey Skywalker film and James Mangold’s Dawn of the Jedi movie could swap dates, meaning the Rey effort would release in December 2027 and Mangold’s in December 2026. Mangold and Lucasfilm recently hired Andor writer Beau Willimon to help pen the Dawn of the Jedi movie.
One of the more popular theories around Dave Filoni’s crossover event film is that it’ll some version of the beloved Star Wars Legends story, Heir to the Empire. Some sites and individuals have even claimed that Heir to the Empire is the title of the Filoni flick. But if you’ve not read that on this website, it’s because the outlet or individual it’s come from is one I don’t find reputable. However, Filoni was directly asked about his film being a version of Heir to the Empire on Happy, Sad, Confused and he responded swiftly sharing, “I don’t know about that.”
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