It’s because fantasy doesn’t often attract the best writers/creators. Really good writers want to write the next Godfather, not a fantasy story with elves and goblins and green people and flying horses in mythical lands.

“But plenty of people write fantasy.”

Yeah, but you don’t have to be a good writer to write a fantasy story. You just need to write a fun fantasy story that appeals to fantasy fans.

Sounds highbrow, but it’s true. The most talented screen writers — established and aspiring — are not trying to get into fantasy.

The only reason fantasy stories are made these days is because of established IP (in other words, a built in audience, in other words, guaranteed money). Since there’s a built in audience, there’s less of a desire to appeal to non-fantasy fans. Therefore, shittier standards.

The fantasy films or shows that do it well don’t focus on the fantasy. It’s more about the plot and characters. They just happen to be set in a fantasy world.

Fact is, fantasy may appeal to a pretty high number of consumers, but it does not appeal to artists, writers, and filmmakers to the same degree. So the content is often little more than a lazily cobbled together cash grab to exploit already existing fantasy fans of a story who will watch literally anything because it’s fantasy.

Sci-Fi has largely escaped this trap. Why, I don’t entirely know. Probably because there’s still a sensed future realism (like, “we could be heading towards a Bladerunner reality”). Fantasy is fantasy. But sci-fi is still possible, and that allows for appealing stories and timelines and characters.

If you want to do it well, you need to avoid focusing on the fantasy and focus on the people and story. That’s why Andor is so successful (and why Alien, Terminator, Bladerunner, etc. were so beloved). They don’t focus on the sci-fi aspects of the world as the primary selling point. They focus on the characters and story. The worlds are just added bonuses of fun and intrigue.

Andor, in the end, could just as easily be a story set in revolutionary France or Cuba with real historical figures. I often times forgot that Andor was a sci-fi while watching it. Whereas most fantasy stories constantly scream “THIS IS A FANTASY LOOK HOW FANTASTICAL WE ARE!”

Fantasy struggles with this. It focuses so much on the world and the creatures and design and CGI that it’s hard to give a shit if you’re not a fantasy fan. And most highly talented current and aspiring artists are simply not fantasy fans.