Current Events > When is a spin-off worthwhile?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I was talking to some friends about Star Wars as a franchise and whether it's a good setting for stories.

When I think of good spinoffs I think of something like Frasier which is focused on the character. or Better Call Saul, obviously focused on Saul. But Star Wars on the other hand is primarily about keeping the setting to be marketable and then making up new characters. every story is about fighting the empire which is just big evil pseudo nazis.

like does Andor need to be Star Wars or is that a constraint on that story?

Considering Andor is a character from another Star Wars movie I'd say yeah probably

ArchNemo posted...

Considering Andor is a character from another Star Wars movie I'd say yeah probably

describe Andor's character in a Rogue One and how it is enough to create a tv show without effectively just writing a new character

When it adds something of value to the franchise as a whole.

008Zulu posted...

When it adds something of value to the franchise as a whole.

but think of it as an interdependent relationship. Like a writer could either choose to make a story with an unaffiliated setting and characters, or they could adapt those to be a spinoff to a bigger franchise like Star Wars. In that case you gotta think of both the story itself and the franchise's benefit.

I feel like you're asking and answering this yourself.

A spin-off is worthwhile when producers (ie: suits) think it provides a greater value, or benefit, to the franchise. Some times they're right and some times they're wrong.