Dave Filoni, Exec. Producer of The Mandalorian, Names His Top 10 Star Wars Moments

Dave Filoni is synonymous with the last 15 years of Star Wars content, he was a supervising director on The Clone Wars and executive producer on Rebels, and now the executive producer on The Mandalorian. Here he picks his top 10 Star Wars moments.

As a recent Vanity Fair profile said, George Lucas handpicked Filoni—they call him “the Chosen One”—to execute Lucas’ particular vision. Until now, Filoni has been a little bit of a fan-favorite secret weapon, the Y-wing to normie Millennia Falcons like George and J. J. and Kathleen.

Wired.com asked Filoni to pick his iconic scenes, the moments that defined Star Wars for him as a creator. He grabbed the task in an unbreakable Force-choke … though he declined to choose anything from his own work or the Disney-era films. Make of that what you will.

Yoda Raises the X-Wing

Luke’s spaceship has crashed and sunk under the swamps of the planet Dagobah, where the Jedi Master Yoda is in hiding. Yoda tells Luke to use the Force to raise it; Luke fails. Yoda does not. “The staging is perfect, the music is perfect, and Mark Hamill, as he so often does, just sells this moment of magic,” Filoni says. “It’s a perfect Jedi lesson, a perfect Jedi moment, something we’re getting for the first time, this knowledge that using the Force, being a Jedi, is not simply about fighting with a lightsaber.”

The Battle of Hoth

“I love the walkers,” Filoni says. “They have my favorite Imperial trooper on board, the AT-AT Driver. Love the helmet, love the red logo.” Also, come on, right? “Giant machines that look like dinosaurs? Who’s not going to love that?”

Escape from the Death Star/TIE Fighter Dogfight

It’s the scene when Luke and Han Solo operate the gun emplacements on the Millennium Falcon, caught in a space battle but also interacting with each other—Luke blows up an enemy fighter and cheers, and Han says “Great, kid! Don’t get cocky.” Character work in the midst of action is always tough. “It’s a defining moment,” Filoni says. “And for the first time, it’s realistically shot and executed.” The fight looks more a World War II documentary than sci-fi. Except with spaceships.

Read the full list at the link below.