The 51st Saturn Awards took place this past weekend, which saw Dave Filoni bring home the George Pal Memorial Award. It is an award given to those who have shown exemplary work in the respective film genres. After accepting the award, Filoni was stopped by Entertainment Tonight‘s Ash Crossan to talk about the recent passing of Carl Weathers.
“He was the best, I mean. I don’t know how to describe it. The fact that I got to meet him, to know him. He was one of the people that… When I was directing the first episode of The Mandalorian, he was one of the first people I directed. And he’s such an exceptional director. So I’m learning on the job from some of the greatest people and he’s great on and off camera. Jon and I were thrilled with what he did as Greef Karga and then as an episode director for us, it made us so happy that he could be part of our team on that side of the camera. He was so enthusiastic about it every day.
My best memory of him is when we were at Celebration for Mando season 1 and he came out on stage like Apollo Creed saying ‘I want you, I want you!’ And just the energy, the power that he carried in his stature, in his voice. I mean, it’s rough, we’re gonna miss him dearly. But knowing he was such a great person and that he gave so much of himself to so many people… His legacy will continue on in ways we can’t even imagine.”
Filoni is scheduled to direct the upcoming The Mandalorian and Grogu film. Although little is known at this time about it, it would have seemed that Weather’s character Greef Karga would have most likely played a role in the film. Sadly, we will not get to find out if he would have played a role in the movie, but I am hoping that he is not recast, and that he is written out in a respectable way off screen.
To be honest going in to The Mandalorian, Carl Weathers was always a question mark to me. I just didn’t know what to expect and didn’t know if he would fit in the Star Wars universe. Boy, was I mistaken. He became one of my favorite parts of the series, which makes his passing hurt even more.
