Much of the first season of Andor resolved around Cassian’s struggle to commit to a cause that went beyond himself–not that he didn’t want to thieve from the Empire and push back against its encroachment on his life, but that he could ever be part of a larger cause against it. Bit by bit, until he finally tells Luthen to shoot him or bring him in in the finale, he begins to get there, and now season 2 wants to keep building on that as it brings us closer and closer to the events of Rogue One.
“He’s a man fully committed to the Rebellion,” Diego Luna told Empire Magazine of Cassian’s journey in Andor season 2. “It’s someone who has to ascend. There’s a huge mountain for him to climb in order to [become] the guy we meet in Rogue One.”
Part of that journey will involve, of course, Cassian developing his partnership with the former Imperial security droid K-2SO, with Alan Tudyk reprising his role from Rogue One as we get a new version of the story of how Cassian and K2 met (we’d previously gotten a tie-in Rogue One comic from Marvel in 2017, but we can perhaps expect things to change). But according to showrunner Tony Gilroy, part of showing that commitment Cassian now feels as season 2 barrels towards the timeline of Rogue One, and Cassian’s eventual willingness to sacrifice everything for the cause, will be having him brush against the beating heart of Alliance operations at its infamous base from A New Hope.
“I mean, we have to end up in Yavin, right?” Gilroy told the magazine. “So, we’ll tell the story of Yavin. No-one has quite dealt with Yavin the way we will be doing it.”
It’s interesting what Gilroy means by that sentiment. Rogue One briefly teased at least some of the clashes and compromises that come from the Rebel Alliance being the size and scope it is by the time of A New Hope, especially what bristles elements of its Intelligence branch–a branch that we know Cassian becomes a dedicated part of by the time of the movie. Even Star Wars Rebels‘ depiction of the establishment of the the Yavin base as the primary hub of the formalized Alliance got into the divisions at play in its moments with Saw Gerrera and Mon Mothma at each other’s ideological throats.
There’s no doubt a show like Andor could give us a new spin on Alliance politics that pushes Cassian deeper and deeper into the cause. But just how it goes about it in conversation with the Star Wars stories that came before, especially as the show begins to move forward further steps in time in the gap it has between the events of season one and Rogue One, will be fascinating to watch unfold.
Andor returns to Disney+ on April 22, 2025.
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