ESSENTIAL INDUSTRY AND AWARD NEWS  NOVEMBER 07, 2019 The Mandalorian’s Chosen One What Obi-Wan was to Luke, what Han Solo was to Rey, that’s what George Lucas was to Dave Filoni. The Pittsburgh native was a young animation director when Lucas asked him to work on the animated series The Clone Wars, which would be the final Star Wars story developed by the creator himself before Lucasfilm was sold to Disney in 2012. Filoni has stuck around even as Lucas has backed away from the galaxy he created, and now he’s known—seriously—as the Chosen One. As an executive producer and one of the directors of the upcoming Disney+ series The Mandalorian, Filoni is taking charge of a new generation of Star Wars stories. As series creator Jon Favreau told Anthony Breznicanfor a story in the latest issue of Vanity Fair, Filoni is both an expert and a collaborator. “He’ll be very forthcoming with his thoughts and opinions if he thinks that I’m going down the wrong path or if he has something that he wants to present, but he’ll pivot suddenly to learning and questioning and understanding,” he said, noting that making The Mandalorian together felt like being two kids playing with action figures in the backyard. Elsewhere in HWD, Katey Rich talks to Motherless Brooklyn director Edward Norton about how Trump’s election spurred him and his collaborators to finally bring the film to life, and Laura Bradley checks in on reports that Donald Trump is already plotting his TV comeback. And if you can’t get enough Star Wars, today also brings a preview episode of Still Watching: The Mandalorian, a limited podcast series from Breznican and Joanna Robinson that will follow the latest Star Wars adventure week by week.

The Chosen One When Dave Filoni first got the call from George Lucas in 2005, “My whole expectation honestly was: I’m going to meet George Lucas, and I’ll have a great story when I’m in line to go see [Revenge of the Sith] that nobody else has. But I’m certainly not going to get this job.” READ MORE » The Mandalorian Takes Off For much, much more on The Mandalorian, subscribe to Still Watching, the podcast that will bring weekly recaps of the Disney+ series as well as interviews with the cast and creators. READ MORE » No Sleep Till Brooklyn In 1999 all the pieces were in place for Edward Norton to direct and star in an adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s mod-noir novel Motherless Brooklyn. Twenty years—and one momentous presidential election—later, the movie has finally arrived. READ MORE » Back to the Lobby Seth Meyers goes deep on fatherhood in his new stand-up special, Lobby Baby—both his own and his father’s. As he told Laura Bradley, “I will say, the hardest of comedy criticism I ever got was from my dad.” READ MORE » The Apprentice: White House Not only are Donald Trump and The Apprentice creator Mark Burnett still pals—they’re already plotting their next TV project, according to the Daily Beast. READ MORE »