Warning: Spoilers for The Mandalorian Season 3, Episode 7Jon Favreau explains the importance of planning and timing with each Star Wars project to fit into an overarching story. Over time, Star Wars has built out an impressive universe while still making it accessible to new viewers. Clone Wars is an excellent example, with the animated movie and series enhancing the prequel trilogy by filling in what happened between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Now, he and Dave Filoni are doing the same thing with the New Republic era between the original trilogy and the sequel trilogy.
Screen Rant spoke with Favreau after the Lucasfilm Showcase panel at Star Wars Celebration about how much planning goes into his corner of the Star Wars universe. He expanded not only on the New Republic era but also on how much planning goes into the entire universe across all periods, crediting Kathleen Kennedy and Filoni. Favreau also teased the pieces coming together in the New Republic era. Check out Favreau's full quote below:
We're having a great time. And now, I think you're getting a taste here of how much planning has gone into Star Wars. I could really speak to the time period that we're working on, but if you look at what Kathy Kennedy has been doing, Dave Filoni has been very involved with all of it.
You see The Acolyte and you see Andor, and you see other films that are going to be coming. All of these things have to be coordinated, because you want to make sure that there's a consistency across all of them.
As far as within our time period, we have to time out how they go down. Not that you would need to watch each one, but you will have a better experience if you do. We're making sure that for the people who are watching all of them, it's additive, and it helps add greater insight to what's happening in the Star Wars galaxy.
Jon Favreau's Star Wars Projects Prove The Importance Of Pre-Planning
The most recent episode of The Mandalorian proves Favreau's point, with the pieces that have been put in place since the beginning of the series falling into place. Moff Gideon finally made his return, revealing a Shadow Council of surviving high-ranking Imperials masquerading as separated warlords. The Shadow Council has also set up the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn and the expectation that he will lead them.
This season, The Mandalorian has been putting the pieces in place to show how the New Republic fell to the First Order so quickly after defeating the Empire. This episode made it abundantly clear that a combination of sabotage, ignorance, bureaucracy, and short-sightedness will ultimately be their downfall. While the New Republic sits back, believing the threats have been neutralized, the Empire has survived and has begun to insidiously grow into what will eventually become the First Order.
The Mandalorian is also laying the groundwork for Ahsoka with her introduction in season 2 and the growing threat of Grand Admiral Thrawn, who has been teased as the main villain in Ahsoka. By planning this out, Favreau and Filoni have been able to time each storyline to where it naturally flows and leads into the next, whether that is on The Mandalorian, another series, or the upcoming event movie, which will be a culmination of all the New Republic series. Star Wars continues to grow, and with new projects like The Acolyte, Dawn of the Jedi Era, and New Jedi Order Era, the story will only continue to grow and become more complex.