Star Wars and why I think it has unlocked potential

I've been frequenting The Escapist Magazine quite a lot recently - it has all sorts of decent news about recent games, recent films and reviews them so that you don't end up wasting your money on something you couldn't quite decide whether or not it was worth your time paying to play/see it.
From this I've learned of the upcoming Star Wars 1313 game, which allegedly is going to present Star Wars from a grittier angle.
Now, I do love the concept behind Star Wars; as a space opera, it has a lot of potential. The thing is, no one who ever does anything related to this universe really does anything... different with it. They never unlock it's potential. I quote from someone -

"They have this huge universe full of all kinds of people and places and things, and a timeline that allegedly spansthousands of years... but we always have to run into the same handful of people. It makes the "huge universe" look like a background painted on the wall of a tiny room."

And I agree a lot with the points made there. The fact is that they always use the idea of Jedi - I realize that the FILM plotline focuses on the Skywalkers and the Jedi but they're so overused! I think one of the only related games/books in the universe of Star Wars that seemed to really diverge from this whole idea was Knights of the Old Republic - and even then, it had something to do with the Jedi.
Despite this the universe is so complicated that it's very hard for someone who hasn't grown up as a die-hard fan to really get to grips with it. I know very little of it compared to those who are hardcore into Star Wars. My knowledge probably expands to the films which I remember barely anything of and a smattering of the games out there.
I just wish that George Lucas would have given us some more information about the universe he tried to depict and lore and that sort of thing - and that other people would at least try to take more of a risk with it instead of sticking to the same old same old because it's 'safe'. I love Jedi, I think it's a really cool idea, but they need to do more with it, explore its potential, or get away from it entirely. I don't always want to hear about the Force, lightsabers and Jedi order. Sometimes, I just want to know more about other races and planets of the Star Wars fandom.