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There are about 100 billion stars in our galaxy. Since there are enough living life forms in Star Wars to fill several million space cruisers, it’s probably safe to assume similar numbers exist in Luke Skywalker’s corner of the universe.
So as we play the numbers game, it becomes increasingly unlikely that every Star Wars story told on screen so far has been confined to a single 70-year period – and even more ridiculous that a single family (the Skywalkers) could have so many. has influenced the pivotal moments in history.
Andor is different though, and based on what we’ve seen so far, it’s the show that makes that far, far away galaxy feel much, much bigger.
On paper, Disney Plus’s new Rogue One spin-off didn’t look particularly daring. Lucasfilm’s ongoing mission to fill in as many gaps in Star Wars chronology as humanly possible means prequels are as ubiquitous as Stormtroopers. Also, like Obi-Wan Kenobi and Solo, Andor (read our in-depth review) focuses on the exploits of an established character in that increasingly crowded section of the timeline between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Nevertheless, Andor’s first four episodes transcend chaining to become the most radical entry in Star Wars screen canon – and that’s a big deal for a 45-year-old franchise.
For all its great qualities, Star Wars has traditionally been (small-c) conservative. The Force Awakens was largely successful because it followed the narrative beats of the original film. Since then, we’ve seen repeatedly that leaving an established formula can be far from popular, whether it’s fans of the original series becoming disillusioned with the prequel trilogy, or an extremely vocal minority telling the world how much they love Rian Johnson’s. wonderfully inventive The Last despise. jedi. (The resulting “correction” course from The Rise Of Skywalker is arguably the worst thing that happened to Star Wars in the Disney era.)
While the excellent The Mandalorian felt like a breath of fresh air, the lone gunslinger themes were a callback to A New Hope’s western atmosphere – and, almost secretly, has become the next chapter in the story of Luke Skywalker and the Jedi Order. . Even Star Wars: Visions – the anime series that gave filmmakers carte blanche to tell their own standalone stories – was oddly reluctant to venture too far beyond the idea of Jedi and lightsabers. The idea of what Star Wars is has become remarkably narrow and many storytellers have been afraid to push at the edges.
weather Bourne
By contrast, the fact that – blasters and the spaceships aside – Andor not feel like Star Wars is one of the best things at all. Showrunner Tony Gilroy (who joined Rogue One for reshoots and is widely credited with turning it into a classic) clearly hasn’t received any memos about sticking to a blueprint, and the results are extremely stimulating.
Cassian Andor himself is an intriguing protagonist because we know so little about him apart from the fact that he will die on a picturesque Scarif beach at the end of Rogue One. Over the course of that film, we saw him execute a colleague and sacrifice his own life for the Rebel cause, but there was only so much a two-hour film could do with a member of a large ensemble.
So far, however, Andor promises to get much further into the character’s skin than revealing how he got his name. Unlike Han Solo’s, this is an origin story with an edge, a journey into the world of a loner living on the edge of the law on the nowhere planet Ferrix. After just minutes into the show, Cassian Andor is a fugitive on the run after killing a few security agents, one of whom he brutally shot in the head at close range. This is Star Wars made with an adult audience in mind, a fact that becomes clear later when – in what we’re pretty sure is a first for the franchise – a scene implies Bix and Timm are about to have sex.
Even the storytelling style feels more like something out of an HBO drama than Star Wars. The camera angles and editing are jerky Jason Bourne style (probably no coincidence, considering Gilroy wrote those films), while the story offers no easy answers. One of the few criticisms of the early episodes of Andor is that there are so many new characters introduced, their motivations not quite clear, it’s hard work to keep up with what’s going on.
Coming up to the third installment, but the approach feels very rewarding as you are completely immersed in a rarely visited sector of the galaxy. Even the fact that flashbacks to Andor’s childhood on Kenari come without subtitles turns out to be a wise artistic choice. No one tells you why there aren’t adults around, or the causes of the mining disaster that all but destroyed Cassian’s home world – the yellowed skin of the poisoned republic soldiers on the crashed ship is truly horrifying – but the fact that you are invited to draw your own conclusions feel like an important step in a franchise that has long had a habit of explaining away every little bit of canon.
Future proof
Crucially, there is never any sense that Andor is committing the cardinal sin of violating the canon. What it does instead is poke into the invisible corners of Star Wars, spotlighting people and places that have no bearing on the wider story of the galaxy, yet have compelling stories to tell. It goes to show that being part of an established universe doesn’t mean that every release has to be tonally consistent, or even target the same audience.
Disney stablemates Marvel seem to have realized they’ll have to stretch the MCU envelope as they move into Phase 5 and beyond, though even the darker, more violent Moon Knight had a habit of falling back on familiar tropes in ways that — until so far – Andor doesn’t have that. Indeed, Andor’s rugged style is arguably as radical as making She-Hulk talk to the camera.
And if this venerable old franchise continues as a going concern, it can’t keep telling the same stories in the same way, especially now that a new “product” hits our TV screens with unprecedented regularity – Star Wars fans are passionate, but even they have limits. Former Disney CEO Bob Iger confessed to this in the wake of Solo’s disappointing box office performance when he told the New York Times (via Yahoo (opens in new tab)), that “I just think maybe we marketed a little too much too soon.” The best way to combat franchise fatigue is to give them something else.
Though no one knew it at the time, George Lucas opened the door to a whole universe of storytelling when he created A New Hope – and Disney has only scratched the surface so far. The upcoming Star Wars TV show The Acolyte will break new ground simply because it’s set in the era of the High Republic (about two centuries before the Skywalker Saga) and trying new things should be Star Wars’ guiding light right now. it’s approaching its 50th birthday.
Andor’s keen take on the universe George Lucas built proves that it’s big enough to support all kinds of genres, be it rom-coms, crime dramas or horror movies. It’s also proof that you can do all of these things without losing sight of what makes Star Wars, well, Star Wars.
It’s been a long time, but Andor has shown us a glimpse of the future in that galaxy far, far away.
New episodes of Andor debut on Disney Plus on Wednesday.