Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy, creator of Star Wars‘ best TV show, has been reluctant to give advice to Lucasfilm. There’s a good reason for this; he believes every individual project should be allowed breathing room to be its own thing, and he doesn’t want the studio to just try to make Andor version 2.0.

He wanted Andor to be a launchpad for Star Wars‘ future. “The hope is that you can do anything,” he observed. He’s proved that Star Wars can be unusually diverse, even hinting that some sort of horror project is in the works. But now, fresh comments have resurfaced that indicate the scale of Lucasfilm’s ambition.

Star Wars Is Preparing To “Let Its Freak Flag Fly”

Tony Gilroy did the rounds ahead of the Emmies, conducting countless interviews; this meant some of these were missed at the time, simply because there were so many. The Star Wars Holocron Twitter account has spotted one with The Ringer-verse three months ago, in which Gilroy discussed the lessons Lucasfilm should learn from Andor‘s success.

Asked about his advice, Gilroy suggested future filmmakers and showrunners should “let their freak flag fry.” Then, excitingly, he hinted that he believes something along these lines is already in the works:

“There’s how many billions of beings in that galaxy? How many corners of it have been unexplored? They are doing a lot of… There’s some things that they’re doing that are really unusual, I think, and I think that lesson’s been taken to heart.“

Gilroy is right; so much of the galaxy is literally unexplored, with the Unknown Regions barely touched upon. Ahsoka season 1 even went a step further, introducing a new galaxy as well; this is sure to be featured in Ahsoka season 2, given Ahsoka Tano and Sabine Wren were stranded on distant Peridea.

The Future Of Star Wars Looks Brighter Than Ever

Gilroy’s comments hint that Star Wars is finally beginning to evolve, abandoning the overly nostalgic approach that has been too prominent in the Disney era (and that prompted Lucas himself to complain that there was “nothing new” about Star Wars: The Force Awakens).

The timing of Gilroy’s remarks makes them even more exciting. Star Wars is returning to the big screen with next year’s The Mandalorian and Grogu, and Lucasfilm seem to have finally figured out how to make a production pipeline work, given filming recently began on Shawn Levy’s Starfighter as well.

Andor has raised the bar for Star Wars, but it sounds as though Lucasfilm hope to clear it.