ADVANCE REVIEW: Andor is a Slow-Moving Star Wars Prequel Series

In 2016 Lucasfilm introduced a new character to its Star Wars franchise, Cassian Andor. The character, played wonderfully by Diego Luna, made his first appearance in the standalone Star Wars movie, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The character made quite the impact during his debut and fans were desperate for more from this thief, turned Rebel spy. But there was one little problem, how do writers continue Andor’s story with how things wrapped for the character during Rogue One? For years, Lucasfilm tossed ideas back and forth on how to further his story until, finally, they settled on creating a prequel series. A series that would explain how Andor went from being a thief to the legendary Alliance Intelligence officer we meet in Rogue One. The end result was Disney+’s newest series, Andor.

Andor is an interesting addition to the Star Wars franchise. Writer, Tony Gilroy, purposely leaves viewers in the dark during much of the first three episodes. Each episode keeps in theme with the thief aspects of Cassian Andor; the mystery and mystic, but it makes for slow episodes. When the episodes do manage to pick up speed, the episodes split between the present and the past. As nice as the writing team does weaving these two timelines together, it might not be enough for people to want to stick around after Episode 1. To be honest the story really doesn’t pick up until Episode 3, but don’t let that fact stop you from watching the series. Each episode gets progressively better and by the time you are at Episode 3 you will want to be tuning in for Episode 4. Episode 3 answers a lot of questions and lays a pretty good foundation for what’s to come in the remainder of the season.

Luna returns to reprise his role as the thief, and that is how viewers are introduced to him when they meet him in the first episode. Luna, once again, proves that he has what it takes to carry his own show, but the secondary characters may not have what it takes. Adria Arjona steps in as Andor’s pseudo love interest, Bix Caleen, while Stellan Skarsgård plays the mysterious Luthen Rael. Fiona Shaw plays Andor’s mother figure, Maarva, and Kyle Soller plays the villain of our series, Imperial Officer Syril. After the first three episodes, the secondary characters are portrayed as merely plot pieces for Andor. The show does dig a little bit into Maarva’s backstory, but for the rest, they are just there to assist Andor. Hopefully, this does not continue for the rest of the series because each of these characters is extremely intriguing and could add a lot to the overall story.

With that being said, sometimes just being welcomed back into the Star Wars world is enough for people to tune in and Gilroy does just that. He brings a whole new idea to the franchise and to a character many thought they would never see again. I suggest giving at least the first three episodes a try before making your final judgement. And, as luck would have it, the first three episodes will drop all together, so your decision will be made pretty quickly.