We’ll Never Get Another Star Wars Show Like Andor, But Not Because of Dave Filoni

According to Yoda, the future is always in motion. That’s certainly true with Star Wars, where the franchise’s future has just changed shape in the most dramatic way; Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down, replaced by co-presidents Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan. The fandom, which doesn’t exactly have a reputation for being positive and supportive, has taken the news how you’d expect; attention has focused on Filoni as the man deciding the creative direction, and he’s become the subject of heated debate online. Some justified, some not.

Reviewing Kennedy’s tenure and the future of Star Wars, The Wrap noted Tony Gilroy’s critically-acclaimed Andor as one of the highlights of her time in charge. Crucially, though, The Wrap continued: “It was also, according to an individual who worked inside Lucasfilm, a series that Filoni disliked.” Lucasfilm has denied this, and others have pointed to public statements Filoni made praising Andor, but it must be noted that reports of his dislike for the more adult Star Wars TV series have circulated for years. In the face of Lucasfilm’s denials, Darren Mooney had the best comment:

Cool, cool. You know what would really convince me of this?

If he were to immediately commission something like “Andor.”

Plus, you know, we’d have something like “Andor.” https://t.co/cNVFuq1rDE

— Darren Mooney (@Darren_Mooney) January 17, 2026

But will this happen? And if it doesn’t… is it actually Dave Filoni’s fault in the first place?

The Streaming Industry Has Totally Changed

Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy believes there’ll never be anything like Andor again. “Not because we’re so great,” he stressed in an interview with Empire Magazine. “But because no-one’s ever gonna start a show on this scale again, and shoot it practically, and have the resources and the protection to do something like this.” Gilroy’s comments raised eyebrows, but he explained a bit more while speaking at the ATX Television Festival in June 2025. There, he revealed how he’d had to fight for the show’s mammoth $650 million budget.

We’ve become used to the massive budgets associated with streaming TV shows, but there’s a sense in which peak streaming died in 2025. Gilroy recalled a Disney exec putting it bluntly, telling him that “streaming is dead.” He isn’t the only one to reflect this view, either, with the Duffer brothers calling Stranger Things “lightning in a bottle” because they “don’t know how many more opportunities there are going to be to tell stories of this length on that size canvas.” Their show launched peak streaming in 2026, and its final season marks the end.

Disney’s Corporate Priorities Have Changed

There’s another consequence of this, too, one that makes a show like Andor much more unlikely going forward. Streaming simply hasn’t paid off the way Disney hoped it would, the economics haven’t worked out, and the House of Mouse is prioritizing the big screen again. For Star Wars, that means ramping up theatrical production, shifting focus back to cinemas rather than producing a never-ending stream of TV series. It’s no coincidence that Lucasfilm has shot two new Star Wars films over the last two years, while we only have one confirmed live-action TV show in the works right now.

That two-year time period is important, as well. In her exit interview with Deadline, departing Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy revealed she approached Disney to begin succession planning two years ago. Within a few months, Star Wars’ focus had completely changed; The Mandalorian & Grogu was announced in January 2024 (it comes out this year), Jonathan Tropper was hired to begin writing Shawn Levy’s Starfighter film in July 2024, and Simon Kinberg was commissioned to write a new trilogy in November 2024. A development pipeline was clearly being set up for the new leadership, focused entirely on theatrical.

It’s Unlikely We’ll Ever Get Anything Like Andor Again

Andor is unique because so many different elements came together well. It was the product of a singular mind with a strong vision, every writer working well, the cast chosen carefully, and no expense spared. The long-form format of a TV series is key to its effectiveness, because it allows the characters time to grow and change, time to breathe and become real to viewers, making the drama all that more impactful. While films can and do sometimes pull something like this off, it’s so much harder to do simply because of the reduced amount of time.

Andor stands out from the crowd as a statement of what was possible during the age of peak streaming. In a way, it’s a sad one; because the truth is, we could have had a dozen more Andors during that time, but studios weren’t committed enough to creativity to order them. To paraphrase the Duffer brothers, Andor is the true “lightning in a bottle,” a series that will never be repeated, perhaps never quite be matched by Star Wars, simply because the entire model is no longer possible in the industry.

This doesn’t mean we should consign ourselves to poor quality Star Wars films and TV shows. There’s good reason to be optimistic about the future of Star Wars, because Filoni and Brennan will make a good team, and Filoni has always stressed the importance of a collaborative environment where his own personal opinion won’t be the one driving everything anyway. But Andor is likely to be the franchise’s high-water-mark under Disney, and for the foreseeable future – perhaps forever.

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