‘Andor’ Made Me Love ‘Rogue One’ Even More

 

You’ve heard it from everyone else, so now you’ll hear it from me: Andor is the best Star Wars streaming series yet. It’s beautiful, it’s tragic, it’s powerful, it’s poignant, it’s real. Those same words could be used to describe Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the incredible 2016 film that first introduced us to Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor and a ragtag group of rebels who stole the Death Star plans and set the stage for the events of Star Wars: A New Hope. The Star Wars fandom is divided about most things, but we can all pretty much agree that Rogue One is up there with The Empire Strikes Back as one of the franchise’s best films.

The first-ever Star Wars Story – one of only two live-action Star Wars films released so far that are not part of the Skywalker Saga – Rogue One was penned by Tony Gilroy, who is admittedly not a massive Star Wars fan but is nevertheless a craftsman in that galaxy far, far away. In the aftermath of that film’s success, Gilroy clearly had unfinished business with Cassian, serving as showrunner for the critically acclaimed Disney+ series that ended its second and final season this week. Like Rogue One, Andor is a grittier take on George Lucas’ galaxy, showing us the flawed architects of rebellion who sometimes have to do less-than-heroic things to conquer unchecked evil. And yes, it’s really, really good.

We all loved the first season way back in 2022 – the amazing costumes, the brutal combat, the cloak-and-dagger political intrigue, and that prison escape – but It was Andor’s second season that cemented it as a classic. Over four weeks, Andor Season 2’s 12 episodes were broken into three-episode arcs, each of which were set one year apart – so it was like getting a new feature-length movie every week. The season’s final moments take us right into Cassian’s mission at the beginning of Rogue One which, in turn, takes us right into the earliest moments of the original 1977 Star Wars film. It’s wonderfully done, and I can’t wait to incorporate both of those films into my first Andor full-series rewatch, which might be coming sooner than later.

Although I’m not quite up to that days-long task just yet, I just finished rewatching Rogue One moments ago, and I’ve never enjoyed it more. Knowing what Cassian sacrificed, seeing how Mon Mothma’s bravery in the Imperial Senate gave rise to the Rebel Alliance, where the line “rebellions are built on hope” first surfaced and what an evil bastard Orson Krennic truly is made me see large chunks of the film in a whole new light. And yes, I still tear up at the end.