As one of the oldest and most popular franchises in Hollywood right now, there’s a lot of Star Wars content out there for fans to eat up. Whether it be the original trilogy of the ‘70s and ‘80s, the numerous animated series, the various live-action films and series that Disney has produced, or the countless comics, video games and novels that have be released over the years, there’s certainly no shortage of Star Wars material, new or old. With so many different Star Wars stories and adventures having already been told in one way or another, the series has established itself as one of the largest and most well-defined connected universes in all of fiction.
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Having this much content under the umbrella of one brand can be a double-edged sword, though. While it certainly keeps die-hard fans of the series fed and satisfied, after a while, it risks overexposure. Every new addition to the canon can easily start to feel like everything else that came before. This is an issue that is currently facing the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which contributed to the consistent disappointment with Phase Four. It’s a danger for any major series, and it’s one that Star Wars has also experienced already with shows like The Book of Boba Fett.
However, while it can be easy to fall into this problem, it’s not impossible to avoid it. With new, fresh ideas that push the series forward instead of continuing to idle where the story has been, long-term franchises like Star Wars can continue to bring the same excitement they once did. It takes a really strong story with a new approach to the series and interesting characters to match. It takes a show like Andor.
Telling Unexpected Stories
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Andor might not be the kind of story that someone would initially consider when they think of Star Wars, but that’s a key reason why it has managed to be so compelling. It’s not a light-hearted space adventure like the original film from 1977, nor is it a grand-scale epic space opera like Revenge of the Sith. Andor is something entirely new for the series. It’s a smaller, more ground-level story that is more concerned with how people are living their lives on poverty-stricken streets than it is with building up legendary heroes and battles. There are no traditional or mythological heroes in Andor, just people doing what they can to resist fascist suppression.
The titular protagonist, Cassian Andor, is not a new face to Star Wars. The character, played by the immensely talented Diego Luna, was first introduced in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story back in 2016. In many ways, Rogue One laid the groundwork for what Andor would become. That film was also a story about the unsung heroes that set in motion the events of the original Star Wars film and trilogy. However, that film balanced out its new approach to Star Wars with many inclusions of classic characters and ideas. With the inclusion of Darth Vader and Princess Leia (briefly) and references to other characters like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Rogue One was a film thoroughly tied into and interwoven with the overall Star Wars canon. And that’s not even to mention the fact that it literally builds toward and then seamlessly connects with the opening scene of A New Hope.
Andor isn’t like that. The series, which was created by Rogue One co-writer Tony Gilroy, takes the same tone as that anthology film and then charges firmly in the opposite direction with it. Instead of taking every opportunity to reference or include outside characters and events from the overall Star Wars canon, Andor doesn’t bother. While there are certainly blink-and-you-miss-it Easter eggs to excite die-hard fans, there are no Jedi, no references to the Force, and no lightsabers. It’s a political story that is almost entirely disconnected from anything we’ve seen before. It stands on its own two legs, consistently and utterly refusing to rely on the familiar ideas and approaches that Star Wars has used to tell its stories before. Even Andor, as the lead character, is not someone fans ever expected to see on-screen again. When a spin-off prequel story about the Rogue One character was announced, many fans were confused as to why and were easily more excited about the new Obi-Wan Kenobi series. However, in an unexpected turn of events, Obi-Wan Kenobi disappointed many fans upon its release this past summer, and now many fans and critics alike are proclaiming Andor to be some of the best Star Wars material in years.
A Newfound Maturity
Andor proves that there is room in the galaxy for all kinds of stories. While the franchise has delved into some darker material in the past, on the whole it has largely been an overtly kid-friendly series. Even the franchise’s creator, the legendary George Lucas, has stated time and time again that Star Wars is a series for 12-year-olds. Prior to Andor, the closest the series had gotten to telling an adult story was with Rogue One, but even that film steered away from going too far into an adult-oriented direction. Andor is an open embracing of the dark side, meaning that the show doesn’t even attempt to be kid-friendly. While the show doesn’t quite earn the TV-MA rating given to shows like House of the Dragon, it’s still a hard TV-14 that weaves a politically and morally complex story that we’ll just say isn’t going to appeal to the average 12-year-old. It’s not a show made to entertain children nor to excite your inner child.
While the story and concept of Star Wars has always been inherently political, Andor is the most the series has ever openly embraced that side of itself. The series is a damning indictment of the oppressive nature of empirical, fascist, and nationalist ideology. Several early reviews for the series stated that the series felt as if HBO had been allowed to make a Star Wars series, and that couldn’t be more accurate. Through the numerous storylines that Andor balances, the show builds a world defined by its injustice, cruelty, oppression, and disregard for the people that inhabit it. This sense of maturity separates Andor from pretty much everything Star Wars has done before, at least on-screen. While there have certainly been adult-oriented Star Wars stories told through novels and other mediums, Andor marks the first occasion that the franchise has embraced this tone on a stage that appeals to the public at large.
A Refreshing Tone
There’s no debating that Andor has not been the same immense breakout hit as other Disney+ Star Wars series like Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Mandalorian. However, it’s not really trying to be. In a new approach to the nearly half-century-old series, Andor is a Star Wars series that is purposefully not for everyone. It is actively trying not to cast a wide net in the hopes of drawing in as many viewers as possible. Instead, the show tells a much smaller and more niche story that has slowly garnered more and more interest.
Through its heavy drama and overtly political story, Andor has shown that Star Wars can be so much more than just wacky aliens and lightsabers. While it might not be drawing in as large of an audience as the shows and films that have preceded it, the series has still proven to be a resounding success for the series. It has improved the overall health of the Star Wars brand by bringing a new sense of vibrancy and just generally being a necessary breath of fresh air for the series. It has shown to its audience that there is plenty of life left in the franchise, and that there are fresh and new stories still to be told within the galaxy far, far away. With a confined two-season story as well, Andor illustrates that there is more motivation behind the creatives at Lucasfilm than just making content that will bring in the biggest crowds. There’s a set creative plan for the series that is determined not by how many viewers Disney thinks they can squeeze out of it, but rather by what genuinely makes sense for the story.
This new adult-oriented approach to Star Wars has brought a new flavor to the franchise that it has been almost entirely devoid of until this point. Even in instances like Rogue One and Revenge of the Sith, where the series delves into immensely dark ideas and themes, it still maintained a vaguely child-friendly tone at its core. Andor marks the first occasion that Star Wars has thoroughly abandoned that approach to its storytelling. The result of which is a new kind of story for the series that has proven that Star Wars can successfully exist beyond the confines of what has defined it in the past. Star Wars can be more than just cool laser swords and spaceships; it can be a compelling and sophisticated tale of rebellion and the gray areas that are explored within it.
