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One man who is front and centre when it comes to Star Wars is Dave Filoni, the man behind shows like The Clone Wars. With the conclusion of Andor, many fans think that its creator Tony Gilroy leaves Filoni standing when it comes to writing and directing skills.

A lot of this talk seems to come from an inability to realise that there are different kinds of entertainment, with different tones, and that one isn’t necessarily better than the other.

Nevertheless, I do think there are some questions that need to be asked about Dave Filoni, and his talents as a creative, not least because he’s a favourite to lead Lucasfilm when and if Kathleen Kennedy ever leaves as president. If he replaced her, he would be the supreme leader, in charge of commissioning new films and shows, particularly for Star Wars, so naturally his capacity for creativity is important.

Filoni started out working in animation, having credits on various Disney projects before he got his big break with Avatar: The Last Airbender. I’ve only seen a few episodes of the show, but it’s generally seen as a great series, with good characters and story work. Next came George Lucas, who gave him a job overseeing The Clone Wars, the first proper Star Wars TV show, set in the period between Episodes II and III, which has become a hit with fans

Since then, he’s hardly ever been away from the franchise. He co-created The Mandalorian, and has led their animation department, currently holding the title of Chief Creative Officer.

To put it simply, I don’t think he’s a talentless hack who just knew the right people to rise through the ranks. George Lucas clearly has faith in him, and I will always give him credit for creating my favourite Star Wars show, which I still regard as the best thing to come from SW television, Star Wars: Rebels.

So where does the hate for Filoni come from now? Well, if I’m honest, I would say he deserves a lot of criticism for his recent efforts, because they’ve been pretty bad; not just in comparison with the original movies, or with Andor, but in their own right. A lot of SW animation now just recycles the same characters and stories, with the ‘Tales Of’ series, and the upcoming Maul: Shadow Lord show. Ahsoka, his first real attempt at live-action, was borderline unwatchable, unbelievably slow, boring, and trite.

Some fans will put this down to his ego, and his inability to ask for help. I don’t know if that’s the case, what I do think is that he now has a lot more freedom than in the past, working as his own boss with no restraints, which not all creatives can handle.

I think he does need help with writing, as there’s no George Lucas to defer to now, and I don’t think he understands the differences between live-action and animation well enough, or how to get a good, natural performance from actors. These are clearly problems, but I think there’s another, bigger, one: he’s too big a Star Wars fan.

Normally you might think this is a good thing for a person now more or less in control of the franchise, but there some downsides to it.

George Lucas wasn’t a Star Wars fan, he was the maker of Star Wars. He created this fictional world by drawing on experiences and inspiration from outside, through things like Flash Gordon, Akira Kurosawa films, and Frank Herbert’s Dune. So when he made Star Wars, he was making something original, with influences from these other works, but still original.

Dave Filoni, on the other hand, is a huge Star Wars fan. He’s clearly attached to characters like Plo Koon, and particularly likes the prequels, and probably knows more about the franchise than any but the most avid fans. Now he’s given access to the sandbox and gets to play in this universe. To begin with, that was under the guidance of Lucas, but now, there aren’t many who can challenge him on a creative level within Lucasfilm.

I’ve likened Dave Filoni to a kid playing with his action figures. He gets to play with them however he wants, making team-ups, bringing back apparently dead characters, and bringing his ideas to life onscreen. And why not? Which Star Wars fan wouldn’t want to be given such an opportunity?

The problem is that this is what Star Wars has become, a mash-up of Filoni’s ideas, of his dream teams, and play scenarios. He’s been given a chance to make his mark on a galaxy far, far away, and isn’t going to waste it. He’s been able to create his own characters like Ahsoka, Cad Bane, and Chopper, and naturally he wants to include them in everything he can, and is very reluctant to kill any of them off, or even to have them go on arcs or change in any real way. He has his favourites, his MVPs, who need to be in all the stories, and become the front and centre of the franchise, replacing Luke, Leia, and the like. That’s not to say he is disrespectful to those characters exactly, more that he’s simply more enthusiastic about his own creations.

This means that he’s the uber-fan. He has a deep knowledge and love of the galaxy, and now has the freedom to do what he wants in it, but that is the problem. All he wants to do is make Star Wars about Star Wars. There’s no Kurosawa or Dune here, no looking back to timeless ideas, just a constant compounding of Star Wars-isms. It’s why Ahsoka was nothing but self-reference to events and instances from other Star Wars, stuffed with lightsabers, cameos, recognizable moments, quotes and “oh look!” moments for the super fans.

Because, despite having everything at his disposal, he still doesn’t make anything new. All his shows are set around the same time, either the Clone Wars, or during the era of the Empire, with appearances from characters we know, and a recognizable through-line connecting them in some way.

If the problem with Andor is that it isn’t Star Warsy enough, the problem with Filoni’s work is that it’s too Star Warsy, and nothing else. It’s so deep into the lore it’s lost sight of what it was. It looks like Star Wars, sounds like Star Wars, and doesn’t reference anything else except the stories, characters and events we’ve witnessed before. Every new show makes the world smaller and smaller, spiraling down until there’s nothing left but the same ideas recycled over and over again, a great big mess of Star Wars-isms that means nothing to someone who isn’t as big a fan as Filoni himself.

Star Wars isn’t about heroes, or adventure, or good and evil, about looking out at the wonder of the galaxy beyond a tiny desert planet, anymore. If you’re not a super fan, there’s nothing to interest you. There’s no universal ideas, no history outside of the fictional galaxy. No touching on themes that can cross that stories and franchises, that have been the basis of tales for thousands of years.

Star Wars is about just one thing now: Star Wars, and that’s not enough.