WITHOUT WORDS - “Andor” avoids the hefty baggage of Star Wars

WITHOUT WORDS

Back in 2018, when Disney announced that it was going to be making a show focused around Diego Luna’s character from “Rogue One,” I remember feeling very underwhelmed by the decision. While I had enjoyed the film and liked what I had seen from Luna’s depiction of Cassian Andor, I believed that what I had gotten was enough, that there was not much more that needed to be told regarding the character, let alone dedicate an entire series with him as the primary protagonist. If anything, I thought we would be lucky to get anything more than a somewhat generic sci-fi adventure for six to eight episodes and that would be it.

Now, seven years later, it is very clear that my assessment of the situation could not be further from the truth. The first season of “Andor” was one of my favorite Star Wars projects ever and the first three episodes of season two promise to be even more of what made the first season great,.

On one hand, it’s strange that series featuring fan favorite characters like Obi-Wan Kenobi and Boba Fett feel far more uninspired than a show surrounding a supporting character from a single movie, but on the other hand, I think it is a perfect representation of what is holding Star Wars back at times.

“Andor” is not like other Star Wars movies or shows. It takes the grittier tone of “Rogue One” and pushes it further yet, creating a drama series that focuses on the darker themes of oppressive regimes and armed revolution. The mystical Force is hardly mentioned, there is not a single lightsaber in sight, no superpowered Jedi or Sith dueling it out for the fate of the galaxy. The scale is much smaller, the characters far more grounded, the Rebellion against the Empire much more personal.

It is not a show for everyone. The pacing is deliberate, the action scenes far less frequent than its contemporaries on Disney Plus. But character work, the art design and cinematography, the dialogue, storytelling and themes on display are all top notch.

And I think part of the reason for this is that “Andor” does not burden itself with trying to be “Star Wars.” There are stormtroopers and TIE fighters and all the trappings of the Star Wars universe, but never does the show feel suffocated under the weight of the thousands of hours of backstory that often comes with these things. Unlike the sequel trilogy or the Kenobi or Boba Fett shows, “Andor” feels free to tell the story it wants to tell.

And yet, at the same time, nothing feels out of place. It’s almost as if a writing team went through and added a bunch of details to make sure that everything fits within the greater Star Wars narrative while the main story details were given the freedom to do what they want. Projects like “The Acolyte” seem to be given the same freedom, but because they rely too heavily on the Star Wars brand, when major changes to lore are made, they feel like fanfiction rather than a natural part of the overall universe.

It also helps that “Andor” actually has things to say. Like any good bit of science fiction, it uses its fantastical setting to question aspects of our world today. This is something that the original Star Wars films also did and is something that is lacking in most of the other Star Wars fare on the Disney streaming platform. Not every bit of fiction needs to have some sort of message or theme, but when done correctly, it can elevate that fiction significantly, and it is certainly a driving force behind “Andor.”

If you would have told me in 2018 that “Andor” would be my most anticipated Star Wars project seven years later, I don’t know if I would have believed you. But, because it chooses to tell its own story, unburdened by expectations and lore of its core property, the series has become the most original and potentially the best Star Wars project to come out under the Disney banner.

A C ERTAIN POINT OF V IEW

BY

NATHANIEL U NDERWOOD REPORTER