Trying a different perspective here. Sorry for the long post, you can go to the next one, np!
Seth A. Davis, joined Stern as new President on October 2021. Before joining Stern, he was at Disney+, ESPN+ and Disney Games and Consumer Products. Since he joined last Quarter 2021, I don't think he would have had any impact until Rush (2022), but even that one would have been in the plans for a while:
- The Mandalorian (2021) (Eddy)
- Godzilla (2021) (Elwin)
- Jurassic Park Pin (2021) (home use)
- Rush (2022) (Borg)
So, Stern's President should be fully involved in the next pinball, imo.
Says on Stern's page he's a life-long gamer (PC and console by the looks of it), he's about 44 now and a family man. After 6-7 months at Stern, he's 'ripe' to officially get his first cornerstone produced and he's probably looking for something mainstream or some easy success to have a great start.
Again: former Disney/ESPN, family man, aged 44, lifelong gamer. Probably quite used in negotiating licensing agreements, obviously still has his entries with Disney.
So, realistically, what themes or ideas would have piqued the interest of such a guy when he sat in those boardroom meetings?