With all the excitement surrounding the release of Obi-Wan Kenobi, it’s easy to forget that we’ve got another Star Wars TV series waiting in the wings. Andor is an upcoming prequel series to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story that will feature Diego Luna reprising his role of Cassian Andor, but it could very well turn everything we think we know about Rogue One upside down.
Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy spoke with Vanity Fair to reveal how the Star Wars prequel series will completely change how you see 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.
The Cassian Andor we meet in Rogue One is fully committed to the Rebel cause, but Tony Gilroy says that in the series, the character is “really revolution-averse, and cynical, and lost, and kind of a mess… His adopted home will become the base of our whole first season, and we watch that place become radicalized.” Andor will have plenty of time to tell its tale as the first season will consist of twelve episodes, the most of any live-action Star Wars series so far. A second season is already being prepped, but Gilroy says that he’s viewing it as “the second half of the novel. The first season is about him becoming a revolutionary, and the second 12 episodes take him into Rogue One.“
Andor doesn’t have an official release date yet but is expected to debut on Disney+ this summer.