Andor Proves that You Can’t Count Star Wars Out Just Yet

We’ve read the Book of Boba Fett and battled alongside Obi-Wan Kenobi, now it’s time for Andor, the latest Star Wars streaming series which chronicles the adventures of Cassian Andor leading up to the fateful events of Rogue One. It launches with a three part premiere which finds Cassian running afoul of some corporate security forces while searching for his sister, leading him to a tentative partnership with the mysterious Luthen Rael. 

Austin Gorton: Adam! We’re back in a galaxy far, far away, and I’d say “may the Force be with you”, but apparently, we’re not supposed to say the “F” word anymore. Because while Andor features a familiar character in Rogue One‘s Cassian Andor, it is positioning itself as a new kind of Star Wars story. What are your top-level takeaways after the three episode premiere? 

Adam Reck: This show wants to be taken capital-S “Serious,” so Star Wars fans may get a feeling of whiplash after The Mandolorian and Boba Fett’s latest action figure adventures. I am in the minority of Star Wars fans who didn’t love Rogue One, but I thought the trailer for Andor looked outstanding. My biggest takeaway is that these three episodes are best viewed together as an arc, because “Serious” also apparently means “Slow.” 

Austin: I am also comparatively cool on Rogue One, but regardless Andor has been one of the streaming series I’ve been most excited to see, in part because of its promise to do something a little bit different. But you’re not wrong that these first three episodes are…leisurely paced, if we’re being polite. But let’s dive in and take a closer look.  

This One Went Rogue

Austin Gorton: Much has been made in the runup to this show about it’s an “adult” Star Wars. The creator, Tony Gilroy, has promised that the series is staying away from fan service, that it won’t feature Jedi or lightsabers or the Force, etc., and a lot of the immediate reaction to the show has centered on how it’s “finally” a Star Wars series for adults. I find a lot of that thinking to be reductive, at best, but there’s no denying the series has, at least in its first episodes, a different look and feel to it in some ways from previous Star Wars streaming projects (it’s also very similar to them, in other ways, which we’ll get into). 

The opening of the series, for example, looks more like something out of Blade Runner than Star Wars: a figure runs through a rain-swept city, holds a quiet, tense conversation in a bar; they are clearly searching for someone. A fight breaks out, there’s a quick burst of action, and a couple people are dead. This is the inciting incident of the series, and it does set the tone for what’s to follow pretty effectively. How did this opening strike you, Adam? 

Adam Reck: I had the same exact reaction to the opening: If this was a shot out of Blade Runner 2049, I wouldn’t have blinked. The second there was a sandstone wall, I thought, ah, this is still Star Wars, which is an odd thing given how big this universe is and how little of it we’ve really seen. 

I’m of two minds with the “finally for adults” conversation. The first is, Why shouldn’t contemporary Star Wars shows be for adults? We’re talking about a film that came out almost FIFTY YEARS AGO and continues to be a cultural juggernaut, so of course there are millions of fans out there who may even qualify for AARP who are totally into this stuff; no reason it can’t be for them. That being said, Star Wars has always been a franchise that was essentially popular entertainment that could be enjoyed by all ages. Star Wars has muppets. Star Wars has laser sword wizards. To say we’ve hit a milestone by discarding core fun elements of the series suggests that adults don’t like fun, and frankly, I only watch these shows if there is an element of fun. I do not come to Star Wars for Narcos-esque violent drama. And so far, Andor feels about as interested in “fun” as my dentist. And like you said, we’re reminded very quickly that our main character is “adult” as he fights those two (notably not Imperial) guards and shoots the one dude point blank in the head. From there it’s world-building 101. What were your impressions of the planet Skrillex and Andor’s extended cast? 

Austin: I’m with you on the “adult” thing. Star Wars is a big world and there’s plenty of room in it for a wide range of story types. We haven’t really gotten a more character-driven, grounded Star Wars story in film yet, so it’s nice to have something like this. But all the discourse that seems to equate “fun” with “kid stuff” drives me nuts. Stories can be mature and still fun, serious without being grimdark. I don’t need lightsabers in Breaking Bad, but I also don’t need suffocating nihilism in Star Wars. 

As for our immediate setting, I was pleased to not be on a desert world for a change (well, I think technically Ferrix is still a desert world, but at least it looks a little different). The direction and prop work were pleasingly efficient at laying out Cassian’s surroundings. I loved the little world-building touches like the huge rack of workman gloves, or the way the chiming of the bell played into the conflict in episode three. Even if we never come back to Ferrix, we’ve seen enough for it to make an impression. 

Adam: Having just visited Disneyland this past spring, I was legitimately curious for a second whether they had seriously set the show in Batuu, but you’re right that the attention to detail wins out. I’m always a sucker for weirdly archaic display screens, and the show doubles down on a visual sensibility that feels grounded and lived in, instead of some of the very bland set design we saw in Obi-Wan. We also get a solid sense of location and space. The show spends enough time in the corridors and businesses of this city so that we have familiarity when everyone has to run around. And we haven’t even touched upon the slowly unwinding backstory of Andor’s orphan childhood on Kenari, which was giving me solid Hook Lost Boy vibes. 

Austin: I’m still torn on the flashbacks. Like everything else in these three episodes, they’re well shot, look gorgeous, and feature a stunning level of detail. That said, they feel a bit repetitive after Book of Boba Fett, in terms of being flashbacks featuring an alien culture presented like an indigenous Earth culture. I’m also not sure what they’re adding, beyond the reveal that Cassian was taken off his homeworld by Maarva (something which could have been covered in one line of dialogue instead of three episodes’ worth of flashbacks). Presumably, there’s more to come and those may add some additional context to what we’ve already seen, but for now, they feel narratively superfluous. 

Star Wars for Adults, No Not Like That

Austin: Another new culture/environment this premiere introduces is that of the Pre-Mor Authority; what’d you make of these quasi-Imperial but legally-distinct from the Empire bad guys?

Adam: I really, sincerely hope these space-mall-cops aren’t our villains for too much more of the story. It’s not that the Stormtrooper-lite band of wannabe weekend warriors isn’t entertaining, but I could have done without countless cutaways to them investigating who Cassian was. I’m getting the sense that their fearless leader, Syril Karn, AKA “the boss is away, I will hunt down a rando” is going to stick around, but honestly I can’t tell whether increased screen presence means anything with this show yet. (I just checked IMDB and it looks like we’ve already seen the last of him – weird) Likewise, we spent what felt like eons with the jungle orphans when their entire – and I mean entire – flashback sequence could have been told in one five minute chunk. 

Another thing that gets drawn out over these episodes is the relationship between Andor, Bix, and her (and I want to stress this) lover Timm with two m’s. That’s right folks – there’s a borderline sex scene in this show. 

Austin: I mostly liked the Pre-Mor Authority as antagonists (like everything else in these three episodes, yes, you could have easily trimmed ~15 or so minutes of their screen time and the only result would have been a leaner, faster moving two episode premiere); British “that guy” Rupert Vansittart (pour one out for Game of Thrones‘ “Bronze” Yohn Royce!) made an immediate impression in his brief appearance as Chief Hyne, and I think Karn could make for an interesting ongoing antagonist for Cassian, someone whose anal-rentive devotion to capturing Cassian for this relatively-mundane crime leads him to get pulled deeper and deeper into the Imperial bureaucracy, a sort of Space Javert in thematic parallel to Cassian’s rising rebelliousness. But if we’re done with him, it just makes spending so much extra time with him all the more puzzling. 

Anyway, yes, there’s sex in Star Wars! For half a second after Bix peeled off her outer tunic, I thought there was nudity in Star Wars, until I remembered where I was watching the show. Regardless, this is the kind “adult” storytelling I don’t mind in Star Wars. Not in a “I like watching sex way” (get your heads out of the gutters!) but just in terms of presenting people living their lives in a relatable way that just involves, amongst other things, sex. Star Wars has almost always kept sex at arms length (I’m still not entirely convinced Anakin “Raised by Monks Who Demanded No Attachments” Skywalker and Padme “Elected Queen at 14 After Attending Government Camp” even knew what sex was and the Force just willed Luke and Leia into existence) and presenting it here in such a matter-of-fact way is a more effective way of telling an “adult” version of Star Wars than a ban on cosmic wizards and laser swords. 

Adam: Timm with two m’s is suspicious of Bix and Cassian, and for good reason! She’s constantly jetting off at inopportune times and using the ol’ “errand run” excuse. Is Bix just a super-secretive junk retailer or is she part of a rebellion?! To contact the mysterious Luthen Rael, she goes to a secretive second location, climbs into a papier mache chimney, and knocks galactic morse code into a rotary phone. Timm with two m’s doesn’t care because once he follows Bix, he sees her rendezvous with super shady Cassian. While Andor is simply trying to sell off a pristine-mint-CGC-9.8-still-in-its-box-Imperial-doo-dad WITH THE SEAL INTACT! Timm with two m’s suspects an affair. Little does he know that his meddling will not end well. 

We also spend some time with the rest of the extended cast, including Cassian’s best broham, fibber-in-chief Brasso, Cassian’s emo droid B2EMO, who needs extra power to lie (I loved this detail. It could have been my favorite thing in all three episodes) and often seen needing a charge, and Cassian’s adoptive (trafficking?) “mother” Maarva. How much any of these folks are part of a loosely knit operation is unclear, but they’re all part of a street community not ready to roll over when Karn and co. show up acting like they own the place. 

Austin: For all the “no Star Wars fan service” talk, you can’t tell me they didn’t decide to occasionally partner Cassian up with a droid in these three episodes as a nod to his future partnership with K-2SO. And for as much as not a lot happened in these three episodes, plot-wise, Gilroy and company did do an impressive amount of work to make all these characters pop in limited screen time. The sequence in episode three in which the town all sort of band together to help fight back against the Pre-Mor goons (without actually, you know, overtly attacking them) was a great bit. There’s avenues where some of these characters can continue on throughout the series (Cassian’s relationship with Maarva seems like it needs some follow-up, and if Bix is indeed connected to the wider Rebellion, she could turn up again down the road), but even if this is the end for them, they at least left an impression. 

Lasers Go Pew Pew 

Austin: The big battle in episode three was obviously the big action set piece of this premiere, and even without the fact that it represented something finally happening on the show, it was executed extremely well. It was basically 1.5 guys (Luthen and an occasionally-helpful Cassian) vs. the dozen Pre-Mor troops, but it unfolded in a mostly believable way. I also appreciated the relatively low stakes of the fight: obviously, getting arrested is a big deal for Cassian, but we’re not talking about galactic stakes here, nor even a huge threat to the immediate community. It was just one guy trying to get away from another guy who is super zealous about his job; low stakes but still entertaining. 

Adam: Can I tell you how excited I was for something exciting to actually happen on this show? The second those Pre-Mor troops showed up, I was like, “oh it’s goin’ down!” And Gilroy & company totally obliged. The extended shoot out involving the chained engines (I don’t know what they were) was really well choreographed so that we never knew what was going to fall and obstruct the blasters or Cassian’s stupid attempt to get back to his Imperial doo-dad. I do wish that the end of the chimes meant the locals were gonna go ape on the troops, but that bit where Rael blew up the car and then blew it up again? That’s the kind of ground-level action set piece I can get behind. Also, kind of funny that Gilroy is saying “no fan service” and then Cassian and Luthen exit stage left on a goddamn speeder bike? Just wild. 

I will say, for as much as I dug the action in the third episode I was still left with a feeling that everything in the first three episodes could have easily been told in two. I’ve commented in our past chats on whether these Star Wars shows really understand the language of TV pacing, but in our present day world of “prestige” shows I guess that’s all out the window. I appreciate the creative intent to go at a slower speed, but as a viewer? Let’s get going, nerfherders. 

Austin: Agreed. It seems clear why all three of these episodes were released together on premiere day: cutting it off any earlier than that would have likely garnered a lot of dissatisfaction in viewers feeling like they were lacking enough bang for their buck. I don’t yearn for the days of purely episodic “every episode stands alone and can be viewed in any order” style storytelling, but I do wish these Star Wars streaming series made more of an effort to present some kind of self-contained arc, however limited, in each episode, to make each episode feel like it’s own thing within the larger narrative of the series, and not just one story cut into arbitrary smaller pieces. While The Mandalorian comes the closest to achieving that, for all that Andor is trying to set itself apart from “traditional” trapping of Star Wars, it feels structurally very similar to The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi. 

It is, of course, early in the series. And there’s still plenty to enjoy here. Let’s just hope the pace picks up a bit going forward. 

Force Facts

• Did you know this is a prequel?! Aside from Rogue One, showrunner Tony Gilroy also wrote several of the Bourne movies, the incredible Michael Clayton, and the buckwild Pacino showcase Devil’s Advocate. 
• Andor is already slated for two 12-episode seasons
• Andor takes place in 5 BBY, five years before the events in Rogue One and A New Hope. 
• In the first episode, Timm with two m’s mentions an upcoming Wobani run to Bix; Wobani is the planet where Jyn Erso was being held in an Imperial Labor camp at the start of Rogue One. 
• It seems Pre-Mor Authority/Preox-Morlana is an entirely new entity, a corporate conglomerate distinct from but affiliated with the Empire in administering the Free Trade sector of the galaxy, and is not related to the Corporate Sector Authority. 
• James McArdle, who plays Timm with two m’s, previously appeared in The Force Awakens as resistance pilot Niv Lek. 

Did Diego Luna Get to Touch Jabba? 

• Not yet

Adam Reck

Adam Reck is the cartoonist behind Bish & Jubez as well as the co-host of Battle Of The Atom.

Austin Gorton

Austin Gorton also reviews older issues of X-Men at the Real Gentlemen of Leisure website, co-hosts the A Very Special episode podcast, and likes Star Wars. He lives outside Minneapolis, where sometimes, it is not cold. Follow him on Twitter @AustinGorton