So for those following the online Star Wars uproar, or who have an interest— the disclosure that Disney is spending more than twice as much on Andor as it did in Kenobi, is not really surprising. Fans are indignant because they see this as yet one more instance of management (Kathleen Kennedy), back-seating legacy characters whom they don’t like for the sake of new and different. Fan’s disappointment with Kenobi, centered as it was around two female characters at the cost of a legitimate character progression for Obi-Wan, is basically raising its ugly head once more.
I happen to have just rewatched Kenobi this last week, and my opinion remains that this is what Disney should be doing, all but force feeding the audience something other than what they’re expecting. Riva seems to get more screen time than Obi-Wan and ten year-old Leah outrunning and outsmarting adults is just stupid, lazy writing. Apart from stuff like this, Kenobi can and should deliver. If Disney can camp on Obi-Wan at just $15M/episode, it is a no-brainer this is where the money should go.
$30M/episode for Andor is absurd. Disney can’t possibly think they’ll ever get that money back so why are they making this series? It’s just crazy management so far as I can tell, and I like Andor. I would love to see Andor continue, but they need to get the costs down to $15M/episode, as with all live action Star Wars. This needs to be a base requirement.
If you’ll recall, George Lucas created Skywalker Ranch and the world’s largest computer network specifically to create live action Star Wars on a $10M/episode budget. He was never able to pull it off. If Disney wants to stop losing money, they need to start giving us great stories for $15M/ episode. Maybe, that’s what we have with Skeleton Crew. Maybe not. Time will tell. It’ll be good to see the Ahsoka numbers as well.