Andor

The Empire arrives on Ferrix in search of Cassian, forcing him to make a last-minute decision to leave everything behind to follow Luthen.

It is a clear testament to what the franchise can do if it gives the keys to the kingdom to storytellers committed to telling good stories and not just the stories they think audiences want to see. But they don’t have a lot of time to get into why Luthen knows who he is, and with the Corpers surrounding the warehouse, Cassian has to make the quick decision to go with Luthen and join what we know to be the early days of the Rebellion. The way these two moments in his life are paralleled seems to pinpoint two moments that harkened periods of loss of place and self for Cassian. In the haste to get to Cassian, Bix finds herself captured by a handful of power-hungry corpers who knocked her out, chained her up, and killed Timm while he was trying to save her. At neither of these junctures in Cassian’s life did he have a choice—staying would have resulted in his death and, even though he agreed to leave with Luthen, he wasn’t left with much of a choice. Is it the gravity of the situation? But before they are able to escape the warehouse, Cassian and Luthen get caught up in a jaw-dropping battle with the Corpers that sees the entire pulley system in the rafters of the warehouse come crashing down like a horror movie. Strong auditory storytelling like this is an art form that has largely been lost in modern filmmaking, but the way Gilroy employs it in juxtaposition to the near-silence of the first five minutes is spectacular storytelling. When the couple tries to explain to him that the Empire will be arriving on Kenari soon, they realize he doesn’t speak Basic, and—instead of finding some way to get him off the ship—Maarva decides the best course of action is to sedate Kassa and take him with them. Back on Ferrix, the Corpers arrive at Maarva’s door with an arrest warrant for Cassian, who is on the other side of town waiting to meet Luthen in an abandoned warehouse. With their arrival, Bix quickly realizes that someone had to have ratted Cassian out—especially since so few people knew about his childhood—and when Timm says the wrong thing, she realizes it was her own romantic paramour who ratted out the man she clearly cares deeply for. As Kassa discovers his reflection (for perhaps the first time) the story shifts briefly to Ferrix as Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård), before jumping back to the past to usher Maarva (Fiona Shaw) and Clem Andor (Gary Beadle) into Kassa’s life.

Andor is an American television series created by Tony Gilroy for the streaming service Disney+. While still a part of the universe, Andor will be something ...

The views expressed here are that of the respective authors/ entities and do not represent the views of Economic Times (ET). [Spoiler](/topic/spoiler)alert, Cassian dies in [Rogue One](/topic/rogue-one), and thus Andor has to be a prequel. The longest-serving monarch, UK Queen Elizabeth II, breathed her last in Balmoral Castle on September 8, aged 96. [Andor](/topic/andor)is an American television series created by Tony Gilroy for the streaming service Disney+. Here we provide a list of things you should remember before watching Andor, lest you have some expectations in mind. [Diego](/topic/diego)played Cassian Andor.

Andor review: Diego Luna returns as Cassion Andor in the latest leaf from the Star Wars saga. This one is immensely watchable for the expert storytelling ...

It’s also the rare Disney+ blockbuster series mounted on a phenomenal actor (in this case Diego Luna) that lets them shine without drowning them in packaging. Now a fugitive on the run, Cassian is soon forced to take refuge with the Rebellion. (Timeline wise this series takes place after the events of Revenge Of The Sith and before A New Hope, so The Empire is at the height of its power.) Rogue One introduced us to rebel spy Cassion Andor (Diego Luna) - a key figure in the resistance against the Empire. (There isn't a single moment of forced exposition through the four episodes I’ve watched which is in itself an achievement.) Rogue One presented a refreshing exploration of a galaxy far far away, one that went beyond the fate of the entire galaxy resting with a single family (across three trilogies).

The new series leans less on lightsaber showdowns and more on the messier interactions between good and evil.

But after so many films and television shows set in the same galaxy far, far away, Andor manages to carve out a new path to understanding that galaxy’s complicated moral stakes. Luna continues to have fantastic screen presence as Cassian, imbuing him with a naivete that is gone by the time Rogue One begins. And the antagonists feel like real-world villains, driven more by ego, workplace politics, and a misguided sense of duty than by a cartoonish pursuit of evil. Still, Andor is not so different from the rest of the franchise that it risks alienating longtime fans. This Star Wars project examines how a person’s needs, fears, and wants can be molded into a taste for revolution—or submission—depending on the (lowercase-f) forces at play. The prequel charts the evolution of Cassian Andor (played by Diego Luna) from an unmoored cynic to the rebel captain viewers met in the 2016 film The violence is grittier, less lightsaber-dependent: The first 10 minutes of the pilot include a character’s accidental death and the cold-blooded murder of another at gunpoint. Unlike the main characters of Disney+’s other Star Wars shows, Cassian is not a stoic loner or an ambitious leader. A show that’s more concerned with portraying life under an oppressive system than with inspiring awe, Andor is an unusually mature entry in the Star Wars franchise. He seemingly [wanted](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THKzwzieF40&ab_channel=PuddingAsgard) to build a sci-fi fairy tale, the kind with dichotomies—good versus evil, right versus wrong, light versus dark—that children could easily grasp. It’s a confident and sophisticated drama that asks for—and rewards—a grown-up kind of patience. The series observes a familiar setting from an unfamiliar ground level: Most characters are trying to save their own skin, not the entire galaxy.

The first episode of 'Andor,' the new Disney+ series that brings back Diego Luna's character from 'Rogue One,' is a different sort of prequel.

The first episode takes place in “BBY 5,” meaning five years before the Battle of Yavin — the Rebel/Empire dust-up that results in the destruction of the Death Star at the end of A New Hope. • Will Andor be the first Star Wars show that winds up feeling too cool to show us weird aliens and stuff? The episode also begins what will presumably be a series of flashbacks to Cassian’s childhood on the planet Kenari, focusing on his relationship with the sister he seems to be searching for early on. There’s plenty of intrigue in this first episode, but the most unexpected, and maybe kind of hilarious, aspect of Gilroy’s grounded/serious take on Star Wars is that it also winds up pretty closely resembling Solo, Rogue One’s sibling Star Wars Story that wasn’t nearly as successful, and basically caused the whole spinoff cottage industry to pivot to TV. Andor also feels like a pivot from the Stagecraft sets, Clone Wars expansion, and pandemic-era minimalism of recent Star Wars TV — a bid to show that the franchise can accommodate more subtlety than Boba Fett riding a rancor. It’s equal parts creative experiment and savvy self-marketing of that experiment: Here are some new corners of the galaxy to explore, on our way to a well-documented destination.

Cassian Andor's troubles continue as he attempts to make a deal with Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) and escape Morlana One, and we meet his adoptive mother ...

(Props for really doing damage with those arrows.) However, what we learn in the show’s present, about the mining disaster that left the planet “toxic,” is a lot more interesting than the flashback scenes. The moments that make this episode feel most like a chunk of a longer pilot aren’t Bix’s shoe-leather negotiations but the scenelets that introduce Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård). Rael does some purposeful walking, as he travels from ship to Ferrix shuttle in relative silence, with Skarsgård on the receiving end of a (sadly not literal) “hello there” movie-star face-reveal shot. Armed with this new information, Syril Karn gets pumped to apprehend Andor and assembles a hilariously dour 12-man force at the urging of his right-hand man, who enthuses that “corporate tactical forces” like theirs are the Empire’s best defense against “fomenting pockets” of rebellion. At times, this recalls some of the most striking shots from Rogue One (including at least one that’s in For example, we meet Cassian’s previously unseen mother, Maarva (given what we see of his childhood, seemingly an adoptive parent), who waits for him with his sensitive droid B2EMO (Dave Chapman provides the sometimes needy, sometimes reproachful robo-voice).

Before Disney Plus' new show can figure out who or what is Andor, it has to show us the Dark Side through Syril Karn, the best villain in the Star Wars ...

He’s willing to accept that the people of Cassian’s hometown are all “bluff and bluster,” as his corporate goon tells him, because he misses how it’s solidarity in action. [The Mandalorian](https://www.polygon.com/22193147/when-the-mandalorian-season-3-comes-out) had a good enough twist on Star Wars’ good/evil dichotomy, but [the villain wasn’t what came to define the show](https://www.polygon.com/star-wars/2020/12/18/22188476/the-mandalorian-season-2-e8-finale-skywalker-saga) (even when played by [one Giancarlo Esposito](https://www.polygon.com/star-wars/2019/12/27/21038233/the-mandalorian-darksaber-black-lightsaber-bo-katan-moff-gideon)). Though he’s not dumb, one gets the sense that he’s so insulated in his position that even explaining the flaws of the system wouldn’t get through to him. And [The Rise of Skywalker’s take](https://www.polygon.com/reviews/2019/12/18/21024586/star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker-review-spoiler-free) is... That light tailoring to his uniform is all he can do to make the powers that be conform to him, rather than the other way around. [The Book of Boba Fett](https://www.polygon.com/22903093/book-of-boba-fett-halo-ringworld-space-station) was a bit of a mess, offering up [neither a complicated antihero](https://www.polygon.com/22902664/book-of-boba-fett-episode-5-mandalorian-star-wars) nor a [particularly compelling antagonist](https://www.polygon.com/star-wars/22929592/book-of-boba-fett-hero-vs-villain) for our beleaguered hero to square off against. But in the first episodes of Andor, it’s clear Syril believes in the work. Instead, the show is the [nitty gritty](https://www.polygon.com/star-wars/23143231/star-wars-andor-trailer-release-date-celebration-disney-plus) of a galaxy far, far away. He takes the utmost pride in his presentation, modifying his uniform to make himself stand out as the shiniest apple in the bunch. It doesn’t take a leap of imagination to guess what feels so prescient about that storyline now, in a time when there’s a lot of change that needs to happen for the world to feel remotely just. [more granular way](https://www.polygon.com/star-wars/23056104/star-wars-moral-ambiguity-gray-characters) into the battles between light and dark. Syril is the sort of bootlicker who asked for extra credit to his extra credit.

Andor, which debuts on the Disney+ streaming service on Wednesday, is a prequel to hit 2016 film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

“I don’t think we’ve been in the most intimate life of the people that were having to live under the control of the Empire. Andor is set five years before the events of Rogue One, in which Luna’s character sacrifices himself for the greater good. In terms of the every day life, now we’re going to realize that,” he added.

Episode 1 of “Andor” opens with Cassian (Diego Luna) arriving on Morlana One to look for her sister at a bar. He irks a couple of sentry guards, who then follow ...

But it becomes evident that the real reason Rael is pushing Cassian to give some insight about himself (and not the Starpath) is because he is interested in him and his skills. As Cassian leaves with Rael on his ship in the present, Kassa ships out of Kenari with Maarva and Clem in the past. Bix apparently heads towards Cassian and Rael to warn them, and Salman goes to the town to alert everyone. Bix meets Rael, and they proceed to the place where the exchange is scheduled to happen. In the present, Cassian learns from B2EMO that two of his friends, Jezzi and Femmi, paid him a visit to deliver supper and Maarva’s (Fiona Shaw) medicine, while he was off on his mission. Although Bix told Cassian that she hadn’t revealed the fact that he was a Kenari to Timm, the look on Timm’s face essentially proves that he knows that the Pre-Mor is hunting for Cassian. If not, he’s going to inform Bee via the comms, and it will deliver the credits to Maarva on his behalf. After telling B2EMO (lovingly known as Bee) to lie about having information on Cassian, he goes to the town to meet Brasso and update him on the alibi. While Cassian takes a look at the NS-9 Starpath, Kassa and his friends approach the fallen ship. As a young kid, Cassian goes by the name Kassa (Antonio Viña) and is shown to be looking at a ship falling from the sky, along with all his villagers. Although Bix doesn’t want to take the risk, Cassian pesters her until she agrees to call her buyer. Under the pretext of bribing them, Cassian draws the guards in and then beats the hell out of them.

The new show follows Rebel Captain, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), five years before the events of Rogue One. Andor explores his pipeline from a child, who was ...

[writes](https://mashable.com/article/andor-review-disney-plus) that while the show’s first few episodes may be sluggish, “Andor is unmistakably a Star Wars story. Cassian Andor is a head intelligence officer at the Rebel Alliance, and part of a small team that succeeds in retrieving the plans to build the Death Star and delivering them to Princess Leia. [ Star Wars’ films](https://mashable.com/article/star-wars-solo-ranked) and spinoff series, Andor is exclusively streaming on Disney+. Quick Rogue One recap: The Empire is building a Death Star that promises to be the greatest weapon of all time (a galactic G.O.A.T if you will). The new show follows Rebel Captain, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), five years before the events of Rogue One. Disney’s latest Star Wars endeavor is Andor, a two-season prequel series to 2016’s spinoff film

Photo: Disney+/Lucasfilm /Courtesy Everett Collection. If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, STYLECASTER ...

Here’s [how to subscribe for free](https://stylecaster.com/disney-plus-free-trial/). Read on for [how to watch Andor](https://disneyplus.bn5x.net/c/256585/564546/9358?subId1=SC-&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.disneyplus.com%2F) online for free to see the Star Wars prequel everyone is talking about. (Disney Plus costs $7.99 per month, Hulu starts at $6.99 per month and ESPN Plus costs $6.99 per month for a total of $21.97 compared to [The Disney Bundle’s $13.99 per month](https://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=t1ZX7*4ybQA&mid=42392&u1=SC-&murl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hulu.com%2Fstart) price.) Disney Plus and ESPN Plus also come free with [Hulu+ With Live TV](https://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=t1ZX7*4ybQA&mid=42392&u1=SC-&murl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hulu.com%2Flive-tv), which costs [$69.99 per month](https://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=t1ZX7*4ybQA&mid=42392&u1=SC-&murl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hulu.com%2Flive-tv). You have room, you have space, you have time, and that is lovely when you have something to say.” Get More Unlimited, Play More Unlimited, Verizon Plan Unlimited, Go Unlimited, Beyond Unlimited and Above Unlimited.) If you have one of these plans, you can sign-up for a free six-month Disney+ subscription (which saves you about $42.) [Click here for Verizon’s FAQ](https://www.verizon.com/support/disney-bundle-faqs/) on how to sign up for its free Disney+ subscription. So there you have it—a way to watch Disney Plus for free. The season will lead into the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The Andor cast includes Diego Luna as Cassian Andor, who made his debut in the Star Wars universe in 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. [$7.99 per month](https://disneyplus.bn5x.net/c/256585/564546/9358?subId1=SC-&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.disneyplus.com%2F) or [$79.99 per year](https://disneyplus.bn5x.net/c/256585/564546/9358?subId1=SC-&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.disneyplus.com%2F) (which saves users about $16 from the monthly price.) Disney Plus is also a part of [The Disney Bundle,](https://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=t1ZX7*4ybQA&mid=42392&u1=SC-&murl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hulu.com%2Fstart) which includes [Hulu](https://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=t1ZX7*4ybQA&mid=42392&u1=SC-&murl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hulu.com%2Fstart), [Disney Plus](https://stylecaster.com/disney-plus-free-trial/) and [ESPN Plus](https://stylecaster.com/espn-plus-free-trial/) for [$13.99 per month](https://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=t1ZX7*4ybQA&mid=42392&u1=SC-&murl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hulu.com%2Fstart) for Hulu with ads and [$19.99 per month](https://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=t1ZX7*4ybQA&mid=42392&u1=SC-&murl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hulu.com%2Fstart) for Hulu with no ads.) The bundle saves users about $8 per month (or 25 percent) from subscribing to each service individually. It’s about that need for people to unite, to articulate a reaction that involves community. The series starts with Cassian, a “revolution-averse” cynic and a thief whose home world was destroyed by the Empire, as he becomes a Rebel spy and eventual captain. [Rogue One: A Star Wars Story](https://stylecaster.com/star-wars-gifts/), which introduced fans to Cassian Andor, a Rebel captain and intelligence officer.

Andor, the highly-anticipated Original series, has arrived on Disney+. The spy thriller stars Diego Luna, reprising the role of Rogue One's Cassian Andor.

[Andor](https://www.disneyplus.com/series/star-wars-andor/3xsQKWG00GL5?cid=DTCI-Synergy-StarWars-Site-Acquisition-StarWars-US-DisneyPlus-NA-EN-BlogArticleEmbed-Generic-NA), the highly-anticipated Original series, has arrived on [Disney+](https://www.disneyplus.com/series/star-wars-andor/3xsQKWG00GL5?cid=DTCI-Synergy-StarWars-Blog-Acquisition-PreSales-US-StarWars-DisneyPlus-EN-BlogPost) with a three-episode premiere. It’s a story that has the most to do with us. “This is the story about the people. Created by Tony Gilroy, the spy thriller stars Diego Luna, reprising the role of [Cassian Andor](https://www.starwars.com/databank/captain-cassian-andor) in a tale set five years prior to the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. It’s about what we can do, it’s about the power we have.” New episodes will arrive on Disney+ every Wednesday; following a 12-episode first season, Andor will return for Season 2, leading directly into Rogue One. [Star Wars ](https://www.starwars.com/news/swca-2022-20-highlights-from-lucasfilms-studio-showcase) [Celebration Anaheim 2022](https://www.starwars.com/news/swca-2022-20-highlights-from-lucasfilms-studio-showcase).

The Cassian Andor we meet in the earliest parts of Rogue One was already hardly the most prim-and-proper sort of person, even for Star Wars' ragtag Rebel ...

It’s why we gravitate to characters like the heroes of Rogue One, why [Din Djarin](https://gizmodo.com/the-mandalorian-isnt-perfect-and-thats-why-hes-so-comp-1840156015) and Boba Fett’s recent turn as the [nicest, worst Crime Lord](https://gizmodo.com/boba-fett-star-wars-chump-1848498513) this side of Mos Espa are so interesting, or why Luke’s inability to grapple with the myth of his heroic legacy in The Last Jedi is so heartbreaking. It’s to watch very normal people do their best in the face of overwhelming structures of evil, because they’re mad at the world they’re in and want to do right by it. But these three episodes go even further and introduce us to a layered world of networks and relationships Cassian has made for himself on the planet Ferrix, pretty much all of which he abuses for favors and are made with people repeatedly calling him out for it. It would be enough to show us that this is a man who barely has a grasp of what he’s doing or what he wants if this act, the catalyst for everything that goes to hell across Andor’s first three episodes, was all we got. But the one we meet [at the beginning](https://gizmodo.com/star-wars-andor-diego-luna-disney-plus-lucasfilm-1849555939) of his self-titled Disney+ TV show is somehow even less put-together to a shocking degree—and that’s pretty damn great. [Andor](https://gizmodo.com/star-wars-andor-series-non-spoiler-review-disney-plus-1849559119), the first three episodes of which began streaming today, opens by taking a practically universally beloved character from Rogue One and spending the best part of those two opening hours textually having what feels like the entire universe hate [its titular hero](https://gizmodo.com/star-wars-andor-diego-luna-rogue-one-disney-plus-vader-1849442225), and kind of for good reason.

It's a series that acts as a prequel to a prequel. It features no epic battles between Jedi and Sith, nor many familiar faces from the movies beyond the titular ...

Andor is one of the few Star Wars projects out there blazing its own trail and telling a story with no Skywalker family connections. This series only has a tenuous link to the main trilogies, yet it’s quickly shaping up to be the best live-action Star Wars series to date. But thanks to the divisive reaction to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the jury is still out as to whether Johnson’s trilogy will ever happen. Star Wars: Andor works because it makes such a point of distancing itself from the Skywalker Saga movies and all the tropes and expectations that go along with them. Meanwhile, a young Princess Leia turned out to be a crucial character in Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi, a series steeped in the Skywalker/Kenobi dynamic and Succession’s Nicholas Britell may not be the first name to come to mind for a Star Wars series, but Britell’s music truly captures the unsettling yet stylish tone the series is going for. The Mandalorian and its fellow Disney+ shows have managed to recreate that Star Wars aesthetic on the small screen largely through the help of the Volume, a digital set which projects detailed backgrounds and lighting against a video wall. But even as Andor captures the grimy side of Star Wars, it also succeeds in blazing its own stylistic trail. The scope of the series is actually pretty small by Star Wars standards. The Mandalorian broke major ground in 2019 as the first live-action Star Wars series. They have grand destinies and the power to reshape the course of the galaxy. It's a very different show from the likes of Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Book of Boba Fett.