How many non-franchise fantasy TV writing opportunities are there? As nobody will consider trying their ideas, every job picked will likely have some compromises.
Doing bad work on less desirable projects in the hope of getting more desirable jobs is an interesting strategy. I mean this is an industry where showing everyone your work is the whole point. They can all see exactly what you wrote; it's all open-source by default.
The bottomline is that as a screenwriter you should do the absolute best work you're capable of, within the constraints of the project. If you can't do that because you aren't passionate about the franchise or whatever other bogus reason, don't take the job. You'll only hurt your own reputation.
While I agree that doing poorly is unlikely to help them long term, I also understand that the situation they're in is probably frustrating.
They've likely done several other shows where they were told that ignoring their distaste and working hard would serve them well in the future, then the only options provided were more shows where they'd have to ignore their distaste and work hard. Eventually you'll try to cram your ideas into a project you aren't terribly fond of.
To illustrate my point, while it's probably not a comprehensive list, I took a look at this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fantasy_television_pro... and from what I can tell there is one fantasy show not based on an existing franchise airing after 2020. The Outpost on CW.
You're moving the goalposts. My original suggestion was that writers only work on franchises they're passionate about. And that doing good work would lead to more offers to work on such projects. Fantasy writers are also fantasy readers and viewers, which means they are surely passionate about some existing franchises and should be happy, even proud, to do new work in those universes.
No one said anything about original TV shows. 99% of screenwriters - a number I pulled out of my ass - never have one greenlit.
I did. That's what I meant by targeting existing markets over taking risks, or why I mentioned non-franchise fantasy writing opportunities, and what I assumed the person I was replying to was talking about when criticizing using The Witcher as a backdrop for their disconnected stories.
And even if we brought that number down to 95% of screenwriters, that would still provide a place for everyone to stick their own ideas in.
