'Andor' Brought 'Star Wars' Back to Its Best Idea

Tony Gilroy's brilliant series celebrated the messy heroism of normal people.

Thela (Stefan Crepon) and Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) in Andor Season 2 | Image via Lucasfilm and Disney

[Major spoilers ahead for Andor]

When Star Wars relaunched under the Disney banner ten years ago with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it was an attempt at a safe reentry following the mixed-to-negative response towards Star Wars: The Phantom Menace in 1999. The Force Awakens is a remix of Star Wars: A New Hope and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, hitting plenty of fan-favorite moments in a new, enjoyable package. Although it could easily be dismissed as too heavy on nostalgia, with so much riding on Disney’s $4 billion acquisition of Lucasfilm, they endeavored to please the fans by bringing in new characters alongside old favorites. It wasn’t the most daring film, but it was smart business.

What came next was not a safe play but two movies that consciously worked to expand what Star Wars could be: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Both shared a simple yet important idea: the galaxy did not revolve around the Skywalkers. The previous seven movies were based upon the idea that although there was a massive rebellion against the Galactic Empire, the hero’s journey required seeing these events through Luke Skywalker, who happened to be the son of the memorable villain Darth Vader. The prequel trilogy then kept the focus on the Skywalkers by telling us how Anakin Skywalker became Vader. Even The Force Awakens, which positions new characters Rey and Finn as the leads, built its plot around the search for Luke Skywalker because he was necessary to defeat the bad guys (this time dubbed the First Order) once again. Oh, and the primary nemesis? Luke’s nephew, Ben Solo, aka Kylo Ren.

Rogue One and The Last Jedi did away with this, and instead celebrated new characters with no preexisting relationship to the Skywalkers. Rogue One is a rag-tag bunch of rebels stealing the Death Star plans, and The Last Jedi not only boldly asserts that Rey is truly no one from nowhere, but its final shot is of a slave kid casually using the Force. Greatness can come from anywhere.

Diego Luna as Cassian Andor in Andor Season 2 | Image via Lucasfilm and Disney

Unfortunately, since 2017, Star Wars has fiercely rejected this egalitarian approach, instead leaning heavily on lore and preestablished characters to convey importance. As a franchise, it has made Star Wars not only more insular but also less interesting. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker said that Rey was Emperor Palpatine’s granddaughter (oooookay), and we got a live-action Ahsoka series, but Ahsoka is not a standalone character. She goes back to the animated film and series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and she’s important because she was Anakin Skywalker’s padawan. Everyone has to come from somewhere, and it’s all about who you know.

Andor finally broke that chain, and while Star Wars will likely return to this “every character ties back to some major figure” framing, it was a glimpse at a Star Wars story that felt as big as the galaxy, not because anyone was superpowered or was Darth Vader’s father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate. Andor argued that greatness can not only come from anywhere, but what we conceive of greatness is not necessarily the Force-powered heroism of the Skywalker-centered movies. Heroism can be messy, complicated, and, most importantly, anonymous.