If Andor, which returns for its second and final season, has been received as one of the very best Star Wars TV series, that is largely thanks to the grittier, more adult approach taken by its creator, Tony Gilroy.
That standpoint—far, far away from the family-pleasing tone often encountered in the Star Wars universe run by the Disney empire—should be of no surprise to those who watched the 2002 action thriller The Bourne Identity, written by Gilroy.
Its genesis was already evident in the 2016 Star Wars movie Rogue One, which Gilroy co-wrote—and which serves as the climax to Andor, which recounts the rebellion leading up to that film’s events.
“Everything is emotionally charged” because “we’re getting close to Rogue One,” Diego Luna, the actor who plays the protagonist Cassian Andor, told AFP.
For Disney, the success of Andor stands out as a new hope for a franchise that has become hit-or-miss with audiences in recent years.
That is why it has banked heavily on the 12-episode story, which cost a staggering $645 million to make, according to Forbes magazine.
Where Rogue One was about a rebel suicide mission to steal the plans for the Death Star, with “characters that sacrifice everything for a cause”, Andor is about how one of those characters “gets there”, Luna said.
Unlike in a typical hero’s journey, the series explores the motives and dark sides of both camps: the rebels and the Empire. It spends time with figures such as a rebel alliance operative played by Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard.
With season one finishing in late 2022 with a stunning 96-percent rating on the critic aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, season two has star billing on the Disney+ streaming platform. AFP