Andor star promises smart, complex final season, confirming our expectations

Sometimes I find it hard to believe that Andor is a Star Wars show. I don't want to rag on the franchise too hard, but since Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012, a lot of the output has been broad or uninspired to the point of tedium. Somehow Palpatine returned in The Rise of Skywalker. A parade of references to older movies sub in for compelling drama in Solo and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Even relatively high-quality series like Ahsoka feel blunted and compromised, twisting themselves to fit into a shared universe Disney insists on building out despite tepid reaction from fans.

And then there's Andor, a show about how Cassian Andor — a supporting character from the movie Rogue One played by Diego Luna — became a freedom fighter in the Rebel alliance. The first season depicted the monotonous horror of fascist bureaucracy, took aim at the inhumanity of prisons, and made me believe that the characters actually had something at stake. It wasn't just good for a Star Wars show; Andor was good period.

Andor expanded the kind of story that could be told in the Star Wars universe, and I actually believe showrunner Tony Gilroy when he says the second and final season is the most "important" work he's ever done. I also believe star Adria Arjona (Bix Caleen) when she tells Empire to expect big things. "I think Tony Gilroy's writing is so smart that wherever people think my character's journey is going to go, it's ten times more complex than what people imagine."

Bix is a mechanic, an ex-girlfriend of Cassian Andor's, and a budding freedom fighter herself. In a typically memorable scene from the show, the Empire tortured her for information by using the screams of an alien species known to cause great damage to the human brain. She survived, and I assume resolve will be hardened in season 2.

The first season of Andor aired in 2022, so it's already been a while. But quality takes time. Expect new episodes early in 2025.

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