Before you see hope and before the Empire falls, rebels are born in the new Disney+ series Andor.
Any prequel of a major film like Star Wars faces the challenge of creating tension and suspense when the main character’s fate is already known. Apparently Disney has enough confidence in its new prequel series, Andor, to release a two-and-a-half-minute “special look” before the series premiere this Wednesday-remind us all of exactly what is in store for our titular hero in his canonical future. Spoiler alert: he’s a tragic hero.
We know that history Andor begins with the Empire’s destruction of Cassian Andor’s (Diego Luna) planet and will describe his transformation from a “revolution-rock” cynic to a major player in the nascent rebellion who is ready to sacrifice himself to the galaxy. Andor has been described as “a sick, murderous spy,” with Tony Gilroy, who first Rogue One, serving as showrunner. And everything we’ve seen so far seems to fit that description.
The ensemble cast also includes Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma, a Republic senator who helped found the Rebel Alliance, as well as Forest Whitaker reprising her role. Rogue One role as Human wars the doctor saw Gerrera. Stellan Skarsgård (as Luthen) and Adria Arjona co-star as resistance fighters who recruit Andor to the cause. Other cast members include Kyle Soller, Denise Gough, Fiona Shaw, Robert Emms, and David Hayman.
We got our first look at the series with a behind-the-scenes teaser in December 2020 during Disney Investors Day. We then saw a short teaser earlier this year at the Star Wars Festival and a full trailer in August. Luna herself was on hand to reveal the final trailer at Disney’s annual D23 Expo earlier this month.
YouTube/Disney+
And now we have this new “special view”, most of which has scenes you choose from Rogue One we had A New Hopeparenthesis by image from Andor. Rogue One is one of my favorite Star Wars movies, and you will not be in love A New Hope? So I personally enjoyed the fast travel of the events of the previous two films (in terms of release, not timeline), including the devastating final engagement between Cassian and Jyn. This new teaser doesn’t contain a lot of new footage, but it does effectively remind us of what’s at stake for this kid’s Rebellion. And was that a lightsaber-equipped starfighter we spotted zooming by?
The first of three games Andor Debut on Disney + September 21, 2022.
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Image credit via YouTube/Disney+