When Lucasfilm announced that it was developing a streaming seriescentered around Cassian Andor, Diego Luna’s Rebel spy character fromRogue One, to premiere on Disney Plus,Star Warsfans weren’t particularly excited. The fan base will still ravenously consume the series, but it’s nowhere near as highly anticipated as other upcomingStar Warsseries revolving around beloved characters like Boba Fett, Ahsoka Tano, and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
On paper, a series about the early days of the Rebel Alliance told through the eyes of a ground-level spy doing the dirty work so that top brass like Mon Mothma and Princess Leia can keep their hands cleansounds awesome. The problem is that Cassian himself wasn’t particularly well-characterized inRogue One. He just disappeared into the sea of generic blockbuster protagonists with generic goals and generic personalities. It’s hard to get excited about a show starring a character who’s already proven to be pretty uninteresting.
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That’s not to say there isn’t hope for theAndorseries. Luna is a terrific actor, Cassian was likable enough to sustainRogue One’s two-hour runtime, and he had a handful of memorable lines and action beats, but he was ultimately pretty one-note, speaking mostly in soundbites, and he died at the end of the movie, so it didn’t seem like he had much of a future. From Tatooine crime lord Jabba the Hutt tocybernetically enhanced General Grievousto everywoman-turned-hero of the Resistance Rose Tico, theStar Warsuniverse has many more compelling characters than Cassian Andor who deserve their own Disney Plus series.
ButRogue One’s failure to make Cassian an interesting protagonist is an opportunity forAndorto round out his characterization. Wanda Maximoff and Sam Wilson were two of the MCU’s least interesting characters untilWandaVisionandThe Falcon and the Winter Soldiercame along with extended runtimes andturned them into two of its most beloved icons. Creator Tony Gilroy can useAndor’s 12 episodes to flesh out Cassian’s character arc and give him some depth and pathos, like showrunners Jac Schaeffer and Malcolm Spellman did with the heroes of their Marvel series.
However, this will only happen if the show keeps squarely focused on Cassian, andStar Warsfans are already lining up their wish lists of legacy characters they hope will appear onAndor. Since the series focuses on the Rebellion and takes place midway between the prequel and original trilogies, pretty much every beloved character is fair game. There are even rumors that Ewan McGregor will appear inAndoras Obi-Wan Kenobi, on top ofstarring in his own miniseries.
As much fun as it would be to see C-3PO or Wedge Antilles or even an exiled Yoda in theAndorseries, this approach could lead toAndormaking the exact same mistakeRogue Onedid with its central character. InRogue One, familiar faces like Darth Vader, Leia Organa, and Grand Moff Tarkin distractedStar Warsfans from all the promising new heroes being introduced. It was inevitable that, in a movie with the most iconic villain of all timein prime fighting form, characters like Cassian Andor, Jyn Erso, and Bodhi Rook inevitably fell by the wayside.
Giving Cassian the spotlight in his own series is a good start to give the character the kind of care and depth that he deserves, but it’s not going to work if Disney just uses it as a springboard for more nostalgicStar Warscameos. Fans might be rooting for beloved existing characters to show up inAndorto recreate the indescribable sensation they feltwhen Luke’s X-wing arrived on Moff Gideon’s command shipinThe Mandalorian, but ifAndoris filled with returning icons like Leia and Obi-Wan and R2-D2, it’ll probably end up having the same issue asRogue Oneand Cassian will remain underdeveloped and bland, just on a larger scale.
Instead of leaning heavily into its fan service likeRogue Onedid with the hallway sequence – which is an easy way to satisfy viewers, but distracts from the focal point of the story at hand –Andorcould connect to the original trilogy in subtler ways.The Mandalorianfeatured Luke Skywalker in its second-season finale, which wasn’t very subtle, but prior to that, its links to the original movies were more understated. The show didn’t beat fans over the head with Easter eggs; it just winked to the audience with little details like the carbon-freezing chamber on Mando’s ship, or by sending Mando to familiar locations like Mos Eisley Spaceport and the Dune Sea.
Cassian Andor doesn’t have to do anything as on-the-nose as fight alongside Princess Leia or answer to Admiral Ackbar to play on fans’ nostalgia. If he visits the Echo base on Hoth seen inThe Empire Strikes Backor boards the Home One flagship seen inReturn of the Jedi,Star Warsfans will be happy.Star Warsfans area difficult group to please, but broadly speaking, they want to see exciting new stories set in a galaxy far, far away featuring a balanced mix of interesting original characters like Din Djarin and familiar fan-favorites like Luke.
Luke arriving to take Grogu away capped offThe Mandalorian’s latest season with an exciting, unexpected twist, but it didn’t distract from the real focus of the series. There was no mistaking the finale’s true emotional climax: the heartbreaking farewell between Mando and Grogu. InRogue One, on the other hand, Vader’s hallway massacre completely overshadowed the shocking deaths of the entire main cast.Andor’s best bet is to take cues fromThe Mandalorianinstead of its own predecessor, because Jon Favreau and Dave Filonihave got fan service down pat.
