Andor, one of the great Star Wars shows on Disney+, was released last year. It has fans of a galaxy far, far away completely hooked. Crashing onto the scene like a spaceship on an undeveloped world, the series has taken Star Wars in a bold new direction. George Lucas always intended Star Wars to be a galactic fairy tale, a morality play that young kids can enjoy, and they have been the franchise's biggest fans. So it is ironic that Disney, a company famous for making family-friendly material, produced the darkest and most mature entry in the franchise. Andor distinguishes itself by telling the story of what it’s like to be under the heel of a militant police force with nothing left to lose.
Update July 16, 2023: This article has been updated following Andor's recent Emmy nomination for Outstanding Drama Series.
Cassian Andor might be the hero of this story, but he’s forced to do despicable things in order to remain free. The antagonist isn’t the Empire that we saw in A New Hope, but some very green private security hired for a large corporation. And the Rebellion is just a group of everyday people that are tired of being told what to do. Andor isn’t a Jedi battling galactic evil but a poor man being abused by an unfeeling system. With the recent Emmy nomination for the series, here is a look at why it is the most mature take on the Star Wars franchise.
Andor Is Dark for Disney
The Andor series opens in a brothel, or more accurately, on the way to a brothel in the Preox-Morlana Corporate zone. As the rain pours down, we watch Cassian Andor walk down a long path, hood up, towards a dim city. It looks more like Blade Runner than it does Star Wars. As he walks deeper into a slowly descending alleyway, aliens sell themselves to him in bubbles, and you know this isn’t the nice part of town. After he’s padded down by a bouncer, we watch him enter the brothel. He must have come during off hours since there are only two other men sitting at the bar. They are gruff and antagonistic. As a front-of-house woman comes up to ask him what he wants, we learn Cassian Andor is looking for his sister, but the woman who might have been her is already gone.
Cassian Andor leaves but is followed into an alley by the two men from the bar. They reveal themselves to be corporate security and demand a bribe. But Cassian Andor decides to fight. During the struggle, a laser blast ricochets off the walls and hits one of the men from the bar. Cassian Andor gets the gun, and the man who is still alive goes to inspect his friend. When he realizes he’s dead, the man from the bar realizes what’s about to happen. Cassian knows if security’s corporate officers found out about this, they would come after him. He pleads with Cassian, telling him that he’ll report to his superiors that this was all an accident. But Cassian can’t take that chance. He shoots his only witness and leaves.
These are the stakes we see in Andor. It’s personal. Not a war for the galaxy, but a war just to stay alive. It takes this unimaginably huge conflict and shows it to you on an individual level. Andor draws less of its power from cool lasers and funny droids and more from its empathetic story. But don't worry, it still has lasers and droids. Every unnamed rebel soldier, every would-be Stormtrooper, is a real person with family and friends. Andor attempts to tell the story of the real people affected by the grand ideologies that motivate the Empire and the Rebellion. It shows their different levels of belief and how far someone might go in the name of justice or liberty, perhaps concepts that are a bit bigger than what your average fan of lightsabers might be looking for.
The Empire and the Rebellion
We get a different look at these two forces than what we normally see in a Star Wars story. For the first time, we are looking at the Empire from a more banal perspective. Here they aren't an evil force run by impressive Sith Lords but incredibly boring petty bureaucrats. It is the banality of evil, one where it is just a job and where no real thought is put into the people it will impact.
They’re just bored people who want to put in their hours and go home. This changes when one ambitious recruit is left in charge while the boss is away. He begins strictly enforcing procedure, despite the advice from his boss, and so begins the hunt for Cassian Andor.
We’ve only gotten a taste of the Rebellion so far but as corporate security charges through the proletariat’s streets, resounding bangs of metal against metal echo through the city to tell everyone to get inside. It’s reminiscent of an old western when the bartender closes shop as soon as he sees there’s a duel about to happen outside. Stellan Skarsgard’s character, Luthen Rael, demonstrates a powerful hate of the empire when he tells Andor to just kill a captured security guard.
Over the course of the series, the beginning days of the Rebellion are forming. Luthen is shown to take incredible risks in the name of the greater good. While the Empire is evil, Luthen is a reminder of how much will need to be sacrificed in order to defeat evil.
Politics In Star Wars
Anyone who remembers the prequels trilogy being released remembers how a common criticism of them was the emphasis on politics. It wasn't political ideas that people had an issue with since those have been present in Star Wars since the beginning. People more had issues with how the discussion of trade routes and legislation was boring when compared to lightsabers and fun space battles.
Andor steers heavily into the political aspects people found boring in the prequels and makes it exciting. Maybe it is the current moment the series is being released, where it feels like right-wing nationalism is on the rise, but Andor is striking a nerve with people. The political segments with Mon Mothma are some of the most exciting in the entire series, like something out of a spy thriller. It is fascinating to see Mon Mothma try to get the funds for the Rebellion while being in danger from the Empire in the Senate. This is a side of Star Wars audiences have never seen and is a breath of fresh air.
Layered Commentary
Andor is an Emmy-nominated show because of its ability to take Star Wars somewhere it has never been. This isn't the old George Lucas trilogy in the late 1970s and early 1980s that fans are still holding onto. Of course, those three movies are iconic. But Andor pushes the boundaries of the series with more violence, more of a build-up to each dramatic scene, more brutal language, and even more intimate scenes.
The hand-to-hand combat and killing come in a greater capacity, especially because Cassian Andor is fighting for his life everywhere he goes. Fans of the series see characters getting shocked to death, beaten, and some get hung. This isn't Han Solo getting into one little tussle with a Stormtrooper on Endor. There are fiery explosions, deathly riots, and a massive commentary on the prison industrial complex. There is a true sense of danger in the series, one where anyone can die.
Andor season 2 is set for release sometime on Disney+ in 2024. The series will span the years leading up to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and will tie directly into that film. If the second season is as good as the first, this might go down as one of the best things Star Wars ever produced.