The latest Star Wars series has arrived on Disney+ and Andor looks to serve as more than a prequel to “Star Wars: Rogue One” by giving viewers a broader look at the state of the galaxy and the early formation of the Rebel Alliance.
Rather than feature an abundance of action sequences and eye-popping visuals, the series puts the focus on the characters and over the first four episodes made available to me is actually a slow-burn character driven story where we not only learn the origins of the title characters but the complicated state of the galaxy as the rebellion is formed.
The series finds Andor (Diego Luna), as a thief barely making a go of things in a backwater system. He has no love for the Empire but his focus is on finding someone from his past which sadly has caused him some trouble and put him squarely as a hunted individual by a regional security force whose leader looks to advance his station by any means necessary.
An attempt to make some good money by selling a valuable item puts Andor in the path of a mysterious individual who has connections to Senator Mon Mother (Genevieve O’Reilly) and it is at this point audiences can see the dangers and early efforts of the rebellion as Andor is tagged as a valuable individual who has skills that their cause needs.
There are many moving pieces in the show with characters not having clear motivations and such but Creator Tony Gilroy is content to take his time with his scripts and project as he knows he has 12 episodes this year and a second season of 12 episodes to cover five years.
The series also favors practical versus CGI sets and this gives the series a more downtrodden look as this is not a world of bright and shiny buildings but one of junk, despair, and common people trying to survive under the rule of the Empire.
It is a bold direction for the series and I look forward to seeing where the series will go next.
The first three episodes of the series appear on Disney+ on September 21st.
