When the trailer for Andor Season 2 trailer came out last month, it was a wild experience, because while the song choice (Steve Earle’s “The Revolution Starts Now”) didn’t shy away from the fact that this would be a season of television about rebellion… The Disney+ Star Wars series looked fun. There was our pal Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) smirking in fancy clothes! People in spaceships blowing things up! Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) twirling and twirling!
Giving Andor a sense of fun was a pretty remarkable accomplishment by the Disney+ PR team, given that when the first season premiered in the fall of 2022, creator Tony Gilroy offered some pretty loud warnings about complacency in the face of rising evil — warnings that only amplify in volume during Season 2. There are certainly some enjoyable moments scattered across these 12 episodes, thanks to scenes that highlight the warmth and humanity of the characters involved, this battle for the soul of the galaxy has never felt more immediate or (depressingly enough) relevant.
Season 1 of Andor tracked Cassian’s evolution into a revolutionary ready to die to bring down the Empire, a path he continues to walk in Season 2, going on missions while hiding out from Imperial forces. Cassian’s just one of many arrows in the quiver of Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård), who continues orchestrating rebellion efforts while playing the public role of frivolous art dealer, as Cassian’s traumatized partner Bix (Adria Arjona) recovers from the psychic injuries endured during her “interrogation” in Season 1.
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Meanwhile, Imperial officers Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) and Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) continue moving up in the ranks as the oft-mentioned-but-never-seen Emperor Palpatine makes his plans to take additional control over the galaxy, his will implemented by Ben Mendelsohn, reprising his role of Orson Krennic from Rogue One. (And bless him, Krennic made sure to pack his capes.)
The cast remains top-tier, playing like an ensemble for most of the season, with Diego Luna and Stellan Skarsgård serving as the real highlights. And Season 2, it’s a relief to report, does not continue Season 1’s most annoying trend — ending many episodes with moments that felt like anti-climaxes. Instead, there are some real cliffhangers here, or at least final scenes that bring with them a little weight in the tradition of great episodic storytelling.
In addition, Season 2 also continues the Season 1 approach of telling longer stories across three-episode blocks. This time, though, the writers add an extra level of structure that is downright electrifying: Each three-episode block represents one year in the countdown to BBY 0, starting with BBY 4. For those whose brains aren’t cluttered with Star Wars ephemera, BBY means “before the Battle of Yavin,” AKA “the scene at the end of A New Hope where Luke Skywalker blew up the Death Star real good.”
BBY/ABY (“after the Battle of Yavin”) functions like BC/AD in the Star Wars universe, the cleanest date system available in this franchise, and it can be an awfully important one, given how many different Star Wars stories are told across different time periods: The Mandalorian begins in the year 9 ABY, for example, while last year’s The Acolyte is set in BBY 132.
Yet for Andor viewers (especially those who remember what happens in Rogue One), the date system instead functions as a very grim countdown. Luke Skywalker would never have been able to blow up the Death Star real good without the events depicted in Rogue One, and the events depicted in Rogue One are where this series has been heading this whole time. (There will not be an Andor Season 3.)
What’s really fascinating is that while Andor remains even more politically relevant than before, the ways in which it chooses to depict a society losing the fight against fascism take some unexpected turns. No need to “both sides” the Emperor’s plans for conquest when characters say things like “access to stable unlimited power will transform the galactic economy and solidify Imperial authority” like they’re posting on Truth Social.