In Star Wars, you’re always wondering what’s happening off-screen. Where was Luke when this was happening? Did Rey know about this? Wouldn’t Yoda be around at this time? It’s both the blessing and curse of telling new stories in an established canon, and Dave Filoni thinks that two major pieces of Star Wars lore aren’t as linked as you may think.
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Filoni — who co-created The Clone Wars with George Lucas and is a producer and director on The Mandalorian — was asked if he’s figured out where Grogu is during the sequel trilogy. This is a very fair question; after all, the reason Rey is such a crucial character is because she’s so deeply connected to the Force. In fact, she becomes what many characters refer to as “The Last Jedi.” So the idea that there might be a little green guy flying around who is equally strong with the Force does make you wonder a bit. Here’s what Filoni had to say.
“That’s a great question, and we talk about many different things,” he told the trade. “That’s a question for a bunch of characters by the way, not just Grogu. Where are they during these events? If anything, having made The Clone Wars and weaving a tale so intricately between two movies that were much closer together, I’ve learned that there’s expansive room in this galaxy for us to tell stories and have characters doing things.”
Then, in classic Filoni fashion (he even did this to us in our interview with him this week) he brought it back to the original trilogy. “As a kid, when Yoda said, ‘When gone am I, the last of the Jedi will you be,’ to Luke, I took that very literally,” Filoni explained. “Well, now we know that’s anything but true. There are many different people that could wield the Force, and maybe Luke is the last Jedi as far as what Yoda would consider a Jedi. So we’ll just have to wait and see how the story evolves and what makes sense. But in my experience, there’s definitely a way to weave everything together and make it exciting. It’s possible it would never even have to cross over with what we saw [in the sequel trilogy] if the story has us somewhere else.”
And there’s the meat of it right there at the end: “it’s possible it would never even have to cross over with what we saw if the story has us somewhere else.” Because if The Mandalorian keeps going on for season after season like creator Jon Favreau has suggested, eventually the 20-ish years between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens that it’s currently happening in will end. And you have to think people will hear about Starkiller Base destroying planets, itself being destroyed, and that lone Jedi who stood up against an entire fleet to emerge victorious.
But, if Mando and Grogu are off a trillion miles away fighting Grand Admiral Thrawn with Ahsoka, maybe they don’t get the memo — and the question then becomes, will that bother Star Wars fans who take notice?