Rumor: ‘The Mandalorian’ Creator Jon Favreau The Casualty Of Lucasfilm Civil War, Not Really Working On Star Wars Anymore

John F. Trent |

Jul 12, 2023

LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 08: John Favreau and Dave Filoni onstage during the Ahsoka panel at the Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 08, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Kate Green/Getty Images for Disney)

A new rumor claims that The Mandalorian Executive Producer and Creator Jon Favreau was the casualty of a rumored Lucasfilm civil war and that he is no longer working on Star Wars anymore.

This new rumor comes from Tom Connors at Midnight’s Edge during the channel’s recent Midnight’s Edge in the Morning #429 stream.

Connors’ revelation came after answering a Super Chat from EHellström who asserted, “Dave Filoni is a corporate creative and doesn’t have what it takes to save Star Wars. Therefore his creation, Ahsoka, doesn’t have what it takes either. I doubt Favreau can save Star Wars.”

Connors replied, “Well, he’s not there anymore, pretty much. He’s gone. What chance he had is over. And I know a lot of people have poked fun at the civil war, but guess what? He was the casualty. Let’s be real.”

Fellow panelist Culture Casino then observed, “The change in direction was quite obvious. Mandalorian went sideways. Boba Fat went sideways. All the slate of Mandoverse shows went sideways. You can see what was happening. And again civil war, no civil war, whatever you want to call it, you can see where everything pivoted. Favreau’s no longer there, which means the last best chance for Disney to salvage Lucasfilm is gone.”

Connors then elaborated on how Favreau became sidelined, “The short version is Favreau was able to operate when [Lucasfilm President] Kathleen [Kennedy] was being distracted by Blood and Bone. The moment Chapek made the worst decision he ever made in office, and I mean that ever more so than some of the other stupid s**t he’s done. He told Kathy, ‘Get the f**k out of there and get back over here and worry about Lucasfilm, their normal stuff like Willow and Indiana Jones and Star Wars. And that was the moment that the civil war ended because it came with the final blow with the firing of Gina Carano. From that moment on everything unraveled.”

“What was finally tied up because Jon Favreau had come in and taken all these tethered ends that were left over from Rian Johnson, and J.J. Abrams, and Kathleen Kennedy had left him with,” he continued. “And he actually managed to tie them up enough to where fans were kind of coming back on board, there was some good will. It was all destroyed in one fell swoop.”

“And I know at the time some of us were like, ‘Well, we don’t think that she’s gonna be—’ No, she was it. That was the moment that I believe everything fell apart because Favreau couldn’t go forward with what he had so he just basically mopped up his mess and he left. That’s what happened,” Connors asserted. “And that was how Star Wars died.”

Rumors about a civil war within Lucasfilm go as far back as January 2021 when scooper WDW Pro detailed at Pirates and Princesses, “The ongoing battle over Lucasfilm’s direction continues, with Kathleen Kennedy and Jon Favreau factions fighting over the studio. It’s fairly well known at this point that the beef between Kennedy and Iger is real, given that Iger essentially ignored her in his memoirs.”

He continued, “It’s also hard to lose sight of how many projects Kennedy has seen fail at Lucasfilm (Star Wars Resistance, Star Wars Forces of Destiny, Star Wars Galaxy of Adventures, Solo, and the Sequel Trilogy falling in revenues with each release), while Favreau seemingly struck it out of the park with The Mandalorian — a series for Disney+ that even Iger was giving creative suggestions for and taking notes on each episode.”

Later he declared that Kennedy was the winner of this alleged civil war, “With all that said, Kennedy has essentially gotten her way time after time, outplaying Iger even if she has been hammered by segments of the fans, mostly by hiring and developing strong loyalty within her brand.”

WDW Pro was not the only one to share rumors that there was a civil war within Lucasfilm. YouTuber Overlord DVD detailed that a grudge between Favreau and Kennedy came about because Kennedy believed the idea of Baby Yoda was hers.

He explained back in 2020, “My sources claim that in Kathleen Kennedy’s mind Baby Yoda was her idea and she feels slighted that she didn’t properly receive credit for the creation of Baby Yoda.”

“Aside from feeling cheated out of her fair credit, according to my source, Kennedy was very unhappy with how the whole thing was implemented. Kennedy reportedly wanted so-called Baby Yoda to be Baby Yodette. In short she wanted the baby to be female not male,” he added.

He then noted, “Furthermore Kennedy wanted a female director for the pilot and in defiance of that Jon Favreau brought in Dave Filoni to direct disregarding her wishes again. At that point, according to my source, the battle lines were drawn.”

However, throwing water on these rumors are comments from Favreau leading up to the release of The Mandalorian Season 3. He told Esquire Middle East that there was no studio interference in his decision to have Grogu reunite with Din Djarin in The Book of Boba Fett despite separating them at the end of The Mandalorian Season 2.

Favreau said, “No, no, I take full responsibility for everything people like or don’t like in this show. There’s no outside pressure on me from the studio, Lucasfilm, Disney, anyone.”

“There’s pressure from within on whether or not something feels right. We challenge each other on whether something feels like it’s authentic to Star Wars, if it feels like it’s consistent with things that came before,” he explained.

Favreau then detailed, “A lot of what you’re seeing is us embracing the complications that come with the choices that we make in our storytelling.”

When asked to elaborate, he explained, “For example, we established in this show that that Mandalorians, don’t remove their helmets, and then, but then in Clone Wars, everybody’s helmets are coming off all the time. Instead of running from that, or sweeping that under the rug, it became inspiration for storylines, and character interactions.”

“And as you start to set those things up and play them out, there are certain inevitable things that start to happen. Also having The Mandalorian as the caretaker for a Jedi with their checkered past as cultures,” he continued

“All of these are leading to these situations and obstacles that have to be overcome and give us a lot of dramatic inspiration,” Favreau asserted.

More recently in Disney Gallery/Star Wars: The Mandalorian “Making of Season 3,” Favreau praised Kennedy, ” Kathy Kennedy ever since bringing Dave and I together to collaborate on The Mandalorian in Season 1 has helped us identify a lot of other great filmmakers to work with.”

He would finish the episode declaring what he believes is the main theme of the entire show, “It’s more about what you value, what you’re willing to sacrifice, what you hold dear, and the role that you fill in each other’s lives.”

“I like that that’s where this landed,” Favreau said. “I don’t know that that’s what we set out to do, but storytelling isn’t always about that, it’s what you discover and what comes out.”