Over the last several years, Star Wars-related media has exploded. Disney purchased the franchise from George Lucas for just over $4 billion in 2012, and they have done their best to make the most of that investment through multiple movies, TV series, comics, books and video games. From a volume of content standpoint, there has never been a better time to be a Star Wars fan. However, perhaps because of the divisive response to Rian Johnson's ambitious and wonderful Star Wars: The Last Jedi, much of that content has played things too safe by relying more on nostalgia than creativity.
Disney has largely chosen to expand on already familiar eras and locations. The time period between Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope has served as the setting for Star Wars: Rebels, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Jedi: Fallen Order, The Bad Batch, Obi-Wan Kenobi and the upcoming Disney+ series Andor. This focus makes some sense because The ages of the Empire and the Rebel Alliance recall the core of the entire franchise: the original trilogy. Still, the returns on continually hashing out a conflict that fans have known since 1983 are bound to diminish. Upon the conclusion of Andor, Disney would be wise to leave the well-worn reign of the Empire behind and look toward something new.
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Prequels can be fun, and many of the stories mentioned above are great, but by focusing so intently on a single 20-year span, Disney risks making Star Wars feel small. The original Star Wars trilogy was groundbreaking and brimming with possibilities. When those movies came out, fans didn't have four and a half decades' worth of material telling them where the story was headed. The galaxy was big enough to be surprising. Amid the constraints of preexisting plot points, series like Andor have less room to innovate or explore the unexpected.
Star Wars producer Kathleen Kennedy has stated that the franchise will be heading into unknown territory soon, but the specifics of that are currently unclear. For now, the farthest afield Disney appears willing to take Star Wars is further into the past with its ongoing High Republic initiative. This could be a step in the right direction except as yet another prequel -- this time set a century or two before Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace -- it still depicts a Jedi Order whose well-documented demise is, galactically speaking, just around the corner.
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For Star Wars to truly thrive, it must regain its ability to surprise. That means moving well beyond the established timeline and telling stories fans haven't seen before. For example, after destroying and restoring the Jedi Order twice in nine films, what might it look like for the Jedi to thwart and survive an attempted destruction? What threats might a stable Galactic Republic face after defeating fascist powers like the Empire and the First Order?
Andor is likely to be a thrilling exploration of war and the moral compromises the fight for freedom often forces people to make. Certainly, that is a worthwhile story to tell. But once that story is finished, it's the right time for Disney to move on. The struggle between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance forms the foundation of the entire Star Wars franchise. However, what good is a foundation if no one builds on top of it? For Star Wars to live, the Empire must die.
Star Wars: Andor premieres Sept. 21 on Disney+.