We live in different times now, and Hollywood has no faith in that kind of story sadly.
Hollywood has plenty of faith in stuff like that (they spend billions of dollars trying to replicate it all the time).
The problem here isn’t “Hollywood” it’s Dave Filoni/Jon Favreau. That’s it. Hollywood isn’t keeping Lucasfilm down. Lucasfilm is doing that to itself, because it is beyond terrified of its own Fandom, and they have good reason to be (It’s mostly terrible most of the time). It’s just that instead of finding better solutions (like not paying any real attention to it, hello Tony Gilroy) they keep doubling down on the worst decisions. Which they’re going to keep doing because they put one of the blandest, safest, least interesting creatives that’s ever come through there in charge of the entire studio’s creative output.
I want THAT kind of Star Wars to return to theaters, the kind that forever changes a generation, not the kind that gives you a few smiles for an evening.
No film series can live up to that level of expectation as a baseline standard. Star Wars arguably failed at it six years after it came out (it’s worth remembering the very first thing Star Wars did after breaking all box-office records was The Star Wars Holiday Special, too). A huge part of why Lucasfilm is so scared and reactive and frankly, DUMB so much of the time, is because of sentiments like “every movie has to be a generation changing event” - which they can’t do. Nobody can do that even semi-reliably. That bar is set way too high, and holding the series to that standard despite the fact it’s never gotten close to that beyond 1977 is basically inviting incessant disappointment most of the time.
There’s gotta be a way to accept that this thing can’t hit all home runs all the time, while still being frustrated that they’re TRYING to do that anyway, and trying it with some of the most boring, simple, not-even-great-on-average designated hitters in the business. Well, I know there’s a way, because I’m already there, LOL.