When you’re a kid, sequels are fun. Easter eggs are mindblowing. The fractal unfolding of a fictional universe across ever-more-specific installments — each one informed by that universe’s previous incarnations — can feel like an infinite promise. But what starts as a thrill can curdle into obligation, as Westenfeld is the latest to point out. So how to undo the burden? Reject fealty.
Canon has a big problem, and the call is coming from inside the house. It’s not hard to see how this obsession with canonical fealty has hamstrung Marvel and Lucasfilm, two franchise juggernauts whose every innovation is punished by a fan meltdown. When storytellers are held hostage by their own audiences, it undermines their ability to do what artists do best: explore, revise, play. This is the problem with storytelling in the age of the mega-franchise—all too often, the impulses of abiding canon conflict with the impulses of making art.
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