Star Wars’ Andor: The Series Fans Have Been Asking For

A still of character Cassian Andor from the newly released episodes, streaming now on Disney +. Source: Tech Update

Star Wars released the first three episodes of their latest show Andor – a gritty, dark prequel to the Rogue One stand-alone movie. The series focuses on the mysterious persona of Cassian Andor, one of the main characters in Rogue One, and how his life led him to the events featured in the film. Unlike other recent Star Wars media, like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor is full of all new characters, cultures and lore which brings quite the attention of fans and new watchers alike. 

Rogue One is highly regarded as the best solo Star Wars movie in existence, with such a compelling plot and emotional ending. Andor director Tony Gilroy really did hit the same nail on the head with this series, bringing all the aspects fans loved most from the film over into bite-sized episodes. With many Star Wars series often making the first couple of episodes incredibly drawn out and boring, for example, the Book of Boba Fett, it was refreshing to have a series that was consistently compelling to watch from the very beginning. The intermediate flashbacks into Cassian’s childhood were also interesting because they added reason to the entire show. 

Since Cassian is a bit of an underrated Star Wars character to begin with, there was no huge hype that the show and its characterization needed to live up to either. I’m glad that the series is able to simply be what it is without all of the controversy that a bigger character would generate. The directors can finally be creative with the story-telling, which truly paid off, just like how Rogue One did in the first place. Not to mention, actor Diego Luna, who portrays Cassian Andor, is phenomenal at making the character come back to life following the movie’s release in 2016. 
The series is slated to continue with another 9 episodes premiering every Wednesday, with another confirmed season coming to Disney + in the near future. My biggest hope is that future Star Wars series will follow the same path as this one, creating a new dialog on characters rather than confirming what we already expected to see. It’s far more enjoyable to see the dark past of a character rather than some superficial retelling that does not live up to what they are currently recognized by.