If you listen to the very end of the “Andor” episode credits, you will hear the familiar melody of John Williams’ original “Star Wars” score. Relatively few people will get that far, in part because streaming platforms like Disney+ encourage viewers to skip the credits and move onto whatever’s next in their queue (and also because the “Andor” credits run for a patience-testing five minutes, with half the names shown in a font so minuscule it’s borderline illegible).
But those that catch the soaring theme may be taken aback; like they’ve been reminded of something they didn’t realize they’d forgotten. “Oh yeah,” they might think. “‘Andor’ is a ‘Star Wars‘ story.”
After suffering too many trips to galaxies far, far away that were either frustratingly confined to previous visions or otherwise failed to flourish, Tony Gilroy’s two-season limited series sets itself apart, despite functioning like a puzzle piece. Yes, “Andor” is a prequel series to a prequel film to a trilogy that first debuted nearly five decades ago, but instead of getting stuck in the past (like so many similar I.P. plays), these characters look steadfastly forward; their urgent purpose firmly rooted in the present, their poignant perspective bound to their fellow man.
While watching, it’s easy to forget this is the same world where Jedis wield Force powers and Jar Jar Binks once addressed the Galactic Senate. But for the most part, forgetting is exactly the point.
And a ringing endorsement. Like many legacy prequels, “Andor” Season 2 can struggle from time to time under the burden of building its own fulfilling arc as the bridge of a three-act story. Fans craving a richer resolution once the twelfth episode wraps will have to queue up “Rogue One” and hope for the best (a dodgy endeavor, depending on your determination to see past certain flaws). But Gilroy’s resolve to craft an earnest tribute to the unsung heroes who built the rebellion is only surpassed by his ability to deliver a “Star Wars” story as aching and soulful, tragic and tenacious as this. “Andor” stands out, even while fitting in, and it does so with style and urgency rarely felt in our conformist era of dreary I.P.
Season 2 picks up one year after the uprising on Ferrix, where Maarva (Fiona Shaw) turned her own funeral into a public revolt against the Empire. Now, Bix (Adria Arjona) is laying low. Her time being tortured lives on in her nightmares — some of which send her sleep-walking toward the sadistic doctor her dreams tell her has returned. During the day, she fixes farm equipment alongside Brasso (Joplin Sibtain) and Wilmon (Muhannad Bhaier), the latter of whom has become quite the Tooley (aka a mechanic) and fallen hard for a local farmer. Wilmon, like Bix, has found his true love at a time of war, forcing him to balance his obligation to the cause with his personal happiness. How much of himself must he give to serve the Rebellion? How much can choose to save for himself?
The answers aren’t easy or equal, nor are they meant to be. Gilroy’s narrative doesn’t shy away from an all-or-nothing ethos, which becomes starkly, fervently clear in Cassian’s Season 2 journey. When we first greet our lead protagonist, played with breathless charisma and lingering sadness by Diego Luna, he’s donned the uniform of the enemy. Tasked with stealing a TIE fighter he doesn’t know how to fly, Cassian soon — and often — finds himself pretending to be on one side to better serve the other. The spy’s life is a lonely one, and it’s not the life Cassian wants. He plans to run away with Bix when the time is right, but so long as the Empire is controlling the clocks, when would that be? Can he cite his many hours of dangerous service and file for an early, if well-earned, retirement? Or, like his Season 1 prison stint, is there only one way out when you’re living under oppression?
As for its oppressors, “Andor” casts them in the severe light of fearful obedience. Ben Mendelsohn sinks his teeth, one more time, into Imperial director Orson Krennic, belittling his officers with curt taunts and lengthy admonishments, depending on how much time he can spare toward excoriation. Krennic’s constant sneering makes it easy to understand why each ISB (Imperial Security Bureau) officer carries out their orders, no matter how illogical or duplicitous. When the consequence of asking questions is his cruel brand of discipline, no wonder one officer chooses death over an exit interview.
What little empathy is extended to the dark side is seen in Dedra (Denise Gough) and Syril (Kyle Soller), the fascistic corporate climbers who are now a wannabe power couple. In Season 2, Dedra earns a spot on a select advisory council overseeing a project involving the planet Ghorman, which has minerals integral to completing the Death Star. Syril benefits from his partner’s proximity to power, eager to feel like he’s contributing to the master plan however he can, but their relationship grows darker and more complicated despite their adherence to the rulebook. (Gough and Soller are excellent, lending fury and anguish to their writhing worms.) It’s almost as if they’re cogs in an unfeeling machine, eager to keep the wheels turning even if it means grinding them up in the process, unaware their precious few feelings won’t fit between the gears.
“Andor’s” blunt disdain for tyrants and colonialists makes it all the easier to see the series as modern metaphor. Emperor Palpatine is still, technically, held in check by the Galactic Senate, but his executive overreach seems almost timid compared to President Trump’s daily decrees. There are scenes of state media framing peaceful protests as unlawful attacks and dialogue that bravely describes genocide as exactly that, in defiance of a cacophony of boos. All the while, disconnected rebel groups strain to overcome disinformation campaigns, mass detainment, and general complacency to form a resistance that can effect change — not just in the long-run, but here and now.
“We fight to win,” Luthen (Stellen Skarsgård) says to a young apprentice. “That means we lose and lose and lose — until we’re ready.” Bringing an end to oppression requires sacrifice, and whether that means sacrificing your individual dreams or sacrificing your life itself, “Andor” commiserates those losses almost as much as it rallies its characters around reasons to accept them.
Season 2 offers a number of thrilling episodes built on action and espionage. There are massive, gleaming set pieces and slick, momentary callbacks. Big speeches make the hair on your neck stand up (shout-out to my favorite psycho, Forest Whitaker’s Saw Gerrera), and the cast assembled by Nina Gold and Martin Ware is sterling across-the-board. (Elizabeth Dulau as Luthen’s assistant, Kleya, may be the breakout of the season.) Everyone from the obsessive “Star Wars” fan to the casual TV viewer should find something to latch onto. (Not for nothing, the Disney+ rollout is designed to best fit the season’s structure, not the streamer’s strategy: Released weekly in three-episode batches, each little trilogy has its own thematic arc, and they’re best appreciated accordingly.)
But I’m still most awestruck by “Andor’s” unique deference to an undeniable outcome. The end of “Rogue One” and the start of “A New Hope” inform more than the plot; they shape the series’ temperament and ideology. Cassian, Bix, Luthen, and the rest of the rebels know what they’re signing up for, and rather than go through the motions until their inevitable end — as if their duty to the Rebellion explains every decision they make — they fight. They argue over each choice, each mission, each piece of information. They quarrel among themselves, and they stand up for each other, all the time, at every turn.
The fight gives them life, even when they know the fight will also be what takes it away. One could argue that’s always been a part of “Star Wars.” But how “Andor” elevates the agony of a life lost and the exhilaration of a life well-lived — a sacrifice that’s worth it — is what makes it a “Star Wars” story that’s at once a remarkable aberration and the epitome of the franchise. Something tells me the next saga won’t be able to match it.
Grade: A-
“Andor” Season 2 premieres Tuesday, April 22 on Disney+ with three episodes. The 12-episode season will be released in three-episode batches each Tuesday through May 13.
