It’s been a tough couple of years for Star Wars fans, especially since Disney acquired Lucasfilm Ltd. from George Lucas, the creator of the Star Wars universe. Whether Disney has failed to live up to Lucas’ legacy is still being debated. Some have praised Disney for expanding the Star Wars universe in unique ways and making people excited about the franchise again. Others have criticized the handling of the legacy characters in the sequels while straying too far off the path from was Lucas originally created. Opinions regarding sequels and most of the Disney+ shows have led to an online culture that boiled down to Disney valuing quantity over quality in their projects.
If you were to ask for my opinion, I would say that a lot of what Disney produced for Star Wars was not meeting the standard of what I consider to be great storytelling. Am I one of those fans who boycotted the franchise after The Last Jedi was released? Absolutely not, that’s absurd. The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, and The Mandalorian are wonderful additions to the universe, but many of the shows and movies that have come out feel they were created by an executive corporation, rather than a creative who cares for the universe.
My opinion has changed, however, with the release of Andor late last year. Andor is everything I want in a Star Wars project. As an audience member, you never feel that the show is trying to go bigger and better or throwing in pointless cameos for fan service. Instead, it explores the Star Wars universe from a completely different perspective, showing how the world of Star Wars is much larger and more nuanced than Sith vs. Jedi, Good vs. Evil, and even Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader. The theme of the rebellion being spearheaded by regular, everyday people is portrayed beautifully by the style and writing of the show. The everyday feel of the conversations, sets, and experience is apparent to the audience because of the show’s attention to a sense of reality. These are just regular people going about their lives while simultaneously trying to create or destroy a rebellion. The show views the rebellion not from the perspective of lightsabers and The Force, but rather from complex and moral dilemmas that the characters face. The show portrays how these characters at some point will have to make incredibly hard decisions and compromises in order to get what they want. Andor also serves as a deep dive into the repressive bureaucracy of fascism because of the depiction of the Galactic Empire. The depiction of the meetings, hierarchical ladder, inside competition, power play, and most of all oppression towards the citizens accurately show just how terrifying imperial rule was and why the characters were so passionate about the rebellion.
As the audience, we are aware of the big characters, events, planets, and even ships that exist within the universe on a grand scale. However, the characters in this story don’t have that broad experience. They’re forced to make decisions with the limited knowledge they have of the bigger world to push their rebellion. Someone like Cassian Andor won’t have access to the same knowledge or resources like Anakin Skywalker had. As a result, the audience is put in the positions of characters who’ve never seen stormtroopers or star destroyers in their lives; recontextualizing iconic elements of Star Wars brings something fresh to those elements.
What makes Andor different than the other Star Wars shows is how the showrunners prioritized the real elements of the story: the tangible, physical, and emotional moments that we experience as humans. The visual effects and fluff are a second thought. The amazing sensory details ground the storytelling and help with world-building, making it feel like these characters exist in an actual world, not in a production studio or in front of a green screen. Andor does a great job of showing us the details of the world from the inside perspective; we get to step into the character’s shoes.
Andor has redefined and expanded fans’ relationships, as well as their expectations for the Star Wars universe. I just hope that Disney learns the right lessons from it.