“Andor” Has “Star Wars” Canon ‘Surprises’
Following on from its overall franchise story a few weeks back, Vanity Fair has published another article – this one solely centered on Tony Gilroy’s “Andor” TV series starring Diego Luna reprising his “Rogue One” role of Cassian Andor.
The basics of the show are known, with the story set five years before “Rogue One” (and four years after “Obi-Wan Kenobi”) as Cassian becomes a true-believer vital to the Rebellion. There will also be flashbacks to his childhood as his adopted home planet becomes “radicalized” in response to Empire rule.
Gilroy has teased that fans of “Star Wars” should get ready for some shake-up to canon of events leading up to those in “Rogue One”:
“There are certain events that happen in these five years that are important and need to be paid attention to. There are certain people, characters that are legacy characters, that the audience, the passionate audience, really feels that they have an understanding of and know.
In some cases, they’re right. And in some cases, what we’re saying is, ‘What you know, what you’ve been told, what’s on Wookieepedia, what you’ve been telling each other … is really all wrong.’ It’s upside down, or it’s sideways, or it’s the opposite of what you thought was true. Or it’s way more interesting than you had ever thought. Or that’s a lie and there’s a reason for it. I would say that there’s some surprises in store.”
How “Star Wars” fans will react isn’t clear. One thing that is quite clear is that “Andor” will have the longest first season of the Disney shows with twelve episodes to air compared to “The Mandalorian” with eight, “The Book of Boba Fett” with seven and “Obi-Wan Kenobi” with six.
Genevieve O’Reilly’s Mon Mothma also plays a key role in the series, her character reportedly leading a major subplot and not encountering Andor until the second half of the run.
A first trailer for the series is expected to premiere at this weekend’s Star Wars Celebration convention in California ahead of the show’s airing starting later this Summer. A second season is already in the works.