Dave Filoni Wanted Ahsoka in ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ So Badly He Joked About Firing Jon Favreau Over It

Few creative partnerships in modern franchise filmmaking have felt as genuinely collaborative, and as warmly combative, as the one between Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni. The two have been the twin engines powering the Mandalorian corner of the Star Wars universe since ‘The Mandalorian‘ first launched on Disney+ back in 2019, and their dynamic has always been defined by a kind of passionate push and pull over the direction of the galaxy far, far away.

That dynamic has found a new and very public expression in the weeks surrounding the theatrical debut of ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu.’ The film, co-written by Favreau, Filoni, and Noah Kloor, follows Din Djarin and Grogu as they are enlisted by the New Republic to rescue Rotta the Hutt, with Pedro Pascal returning alongside Sigourney Weaver and Jeremy Allen White. It represents Star Wars‘ first major theatrical release in years, and a significant creative gamble for both men.

What has emerged during the film’s promotional run is a revealing glimpse at just how differently Favreau and Filoni approached one of the movie’s biggest creative calls: the decision to keep Ahsoka Tano out of it entirely. According to Deadline, Filoni admitted he tried hard to include Ahsoka in the film, only for Favreau to push back firmly enough that Filoni joked he had nearly fired his longtime collaborator over it. “I almost fired Jon,” Filoni is quoted as saying. “I’m still not over it.”

Favreau addressed the absence through an interview with Entertainment Weekly, explaining that when the project shifted from a planned fourth season of the show into a theatrical release, the entire creative approach had to change. “A fourth season of a show would have assumed that you saw three seasons previously and, frankly, everything else on Disney+,” he said, adding that a theatrical film required a different level of accessibility. Filoni, speaking as part of Entertainment Weekly’s Debunked video series, offered his own framing, saying the team does not include characters for crossover value alone. “It’s not always about character crossovers,” he explained. “It’s about the characters and what they’re experiencing.”

Filoni also noted that Ahsoka was originally brought into ‘The Mandalorian’ for a specific narrative reason, serving as the character best positioned to explain Grogu’s past to both Din Djarin and the audience, rather than simply as a crowd-pleasing cameo. That logic, in Favreau’s view, no longer applied to a standalone movie aimed squarely at audiences who may never have watched a single episode of either show. Favreau said the writing team looked at the existing Season 4 scripts and determined they simply did not function as a film, forcing them to start from scratch on the story.

The film opened over Memorial Day weekend to a four-day domestic haul in the range of $91 to $98 million, performing on par with 2018’s ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ and earning an A-minus CinemaScore from audiences. The production carried a reported budget of around $165 million, notably leaner than previous Star Wars theatrical releases, which has lowered its threshold for profitability and given Disney more room to declare the outing a success.

Whether Ahsoka’s absence ultimately helped or hurt those numbers is a debate that will likely rage in fan circles for some time, but Filoni’s candid frustration with Favreau’s call makes it clear the conversation was anything but simple behind the scenes.

If you think Ahsoka should have made it into the film, or that Favreau was right to keep the story focused, drop your take below.