I think one of the best things big franchises can do is bring somebody on who kinda fundamentally disagrees with the whole thesis. When you get these long running IP’s and the last generation’s fans become the current generation’s writers, it can lead to an incestuous stagnation.
Im thinking about what Ira Behr brought to the table in DS9, and how it feels like Tony Gilroy is sort of trying for the Star Wars equivalent of that with Andor. A stickler for the continuity and world building, but skeptical of the end result. Teasing out nuance from the dissonant bits, rather than just trying to smooth them over.
Like at the end of the day Dave Filoni is a kid playing with action figures, and now that Disney has given him the EXPENSIVE toys like Luke Skywalker and Boba Fett, he’s become far more reverent than he was with his original characters, or the pre-destined tragedies of the clone wars guys. His best stories are mostly putting meat on the bones of George Lucas’s high concept outlines, so when a fundamentally incurious guy like John Favreau is setting the course of the grand narrative, all Filoni can really do is focus on cute character dynamics on an episode by episode basis. Tony Gilroy et all are needed to break the cycle
