Dave Filoni Doing Research For His Next SW Project

---

The Official Star Wars Twitter posted a short video of Dave Filoni opening up a vintage TIE Fighter toy and calling it "research." Dear Mr. Filoni: What, pray tell, are we to take away from this little missive from the former supervising director of Star Wars: The Clone Wars? Might this perhaps be a way of teasing the era and content of your next animated Star Wars project? Or is this just research for your first attempt at TIE pilot fanfiction?

You can check out the video right here. You'll need to click the speaker icon in the top left to unmute the video.

This TIE fighter theme is not new for Filoni. He previously posted his TIE sketches on Facebook with the caption, "It's hard to believe that I have worked at Lucasfilm almost eight years, and this is the first time I have ever gotten to draw a TIE fighter." Color us excited!

UPDATE: TFN reader Paul Dunahoo points out some other hints about Filoni's mystery project in our comments section:

Watch that Vine video again (https://vine.co/v/bEM2riO9WAq). Look at the names of the folders on his desktop. One of them is a link to this: http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2009/05/20/stay-on-target/

It says, and I quote, "In those first dark days it seemed certain the bright flame would be extinguished before it cast the light of new truth."

Another thing. One folder says this: SK_DF_GW. That is one of the game folders for Dark Forces, which has things on Imperial and Rebel stealth missions. It takes place during the Dark Times.

In the background for the video in the Vine video, you'll notice that Dave Filoni also has some of the following items. A circle piece of paper, with a few lines on it. This is the Death Star, and how it looked at about 18.9 BBY. Next to it he has a statue of Ahsoka, a Darth Vader mask, R2-D2, and an AT-AT walker.

I would also like to call to your attention a recent tweet by the Keeper of the Holocron. "I have the first line of the opening crawl for The Empire Strikes Back stuck in my head." Guess what those magical words say? "It is a dark time..."

I did a bit more research on that TIE Fighter drawing as well. Just a few years before A New Hope, TIE Fighters would be connected to cranes when not in use. That changed a few years later, when The Dark Times was over.

Great research Paul! This certainly points to a Dark Times-era series.

UPDATE #2: Here's more from TFN reader and digital sleuth Paul:

One of the folders says "SlipThroughFingers." This is clearly in reference to the following quote:

"The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers." ―Princess Leia to Grand Moff Tarkin

And one more thing (this is more of a guess though): one of the files, "b_cover_photo.jpg" shows an icon photo preview of a certain species (according to color references, using a pixel color selector tool). It's a Togruta.

For reference, here is the desktop around the teaser video with the hints that Paul is referencing:

UPDATE #3: The easter eggs just keep coming! A Club Jade reader spotted what might be a clue about Filoni's collaborator on the series:

Courtesy of an observant reader of my page, the picture on the upper right can be found via Google. It's called 5546889492_d864ed2a1e_o.jpg and leads to Flickr, showing a poster of the TV show Gargoyles. The show's creator's name is Greg Weisman, and if you scan the lower right part of Filoni's desktop, you will find a folder called SK_DF_GW which leads to the assumption that DF is Filoni and GW is Greg Weisman. The SK..? Who knows. :-)

---

Related Stories:

LFL Announces New Animated Series: Star Wars Rebels

---