'Andor' Season 2 Broadens Its Focus & Raises the Prequel Bar

Talk about the galaxy having ironic timing. Andor, Star Wars’ best and most politically engaged streaming series, returns April 22 for its second and final season, and boy, does it hit hard in our current global political climate. Tony Gilroy’s sweeping, inspiring, and incredibly mature prequel series tracks the birth of the Rebel Alliance as seen through the eyes of the initially reluctant everyman Cassian Andor (Diego Luna). Season 2 builds off the characters and narrative threads established in the first season, amps up the stakes, and then ties them up into a thrilling climax that snaps beautifully into the heartbreaking Gilroy-scripted 2016 film Rogue One. 

Not many prequel series are vital endeavors. The Better Call Saul to Breaking Bad ratios are few and far between. But in the case of Andor, there’s no question that Gilroy and company have pulled off another high-water mark example of how best to build a story around characters and events that are riveting all by themselves. Then they show off in the series finale by achieving the seemingly impossible, making the great film Rogue One even better and richer, thanks to the events in the series adding layers of depth and emotional resonance. 

Not to mention that both seasons of Andor rival the cream of the crop that PBS or BritBox has to offer in terms of U.K. talent knocking it out of the park with their performances. If Season 1 was focused on Cassian Andor finding his motivations to fight back against the advancing tyranny of the Galactic Empire, Season 2 is about broadening out that story for the ensemble of characters in his orbit. They, too, are forced to meet the moment, or get vanquished by it. 

In particular, Gilroy and his writers have made the second season a veritable playground for the female characters to tell their stories about sacrifice, showcasing the show’s ample British contingent of talent. In every case, Andor gives its women characters agency and context that not only makes the whole Star Wars universe more interesting, but also illustrates the diversity of cultures that will go on to create the tapestry of the Rebellion Alliance. 

Genevieve O’Reilly’s (The Fall) gives a staggering performance as Senator Mon Mothma as her orthodox Chandrilan origins are more and more antithetical to her progressive politics in the Senate. Denise Gough’s (Too Close) icy Imperial Lieutenant Dedra Meero remains terrifying due to her undeterred Rebellion obsession. Yet, we get to see her awkward side as she attempts to exist a bit outside of her fealty to the Imperial cause. Faye Marsay (Adolescence) and Varada Sethu (Doctor Who) can bond more as Rebellion lovers, Vel and Cintra. There’s the much-appreciated return of Kathryn Hunter’s (Richard III) endlessly hilarious, brow-beating mother Eedy Karn. And last but not least is Elizabeth Dulau’s (Gentleman Jack) steely turn as Kleya Marki, who steps up and shines bright this season as she’s given more treacherous spy work as the right-hand woman of Rebellion puppet master, Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård).

They get to play with the rest of the incomparable cast, including the towering Skarsgård, who gives Luthen more gravitas as he vacillates between hero and villain for the cause. There is also Kyle Soller (Poldark) as Syril Karn, who adds more absurd comic relief that’s tempered by his conscience growing the deeper he commits to the Empire’s pursuits; and then there’s Adria Arjona’s Bix Caleen who carves her name into the Star Wars mythology as one of its very best heroines. Her journey adds so much soul and heart to what the Rebellion stands for. 

The series picks up four years before the Battle of Yavin (or BBY), where the defining battle between the Empire and the Rebellion will play out in Star Wars: A New Hope. Andor Season 2 adopts a bold structural change by clustering three episodes into a mini arc that takes place sometime within a year, getting Cassian Andor closer to the events of Rogue One. It’s a snapshot style of storytelling that drops the audience back into the lives of the ensemble and the Empire’s progress in completing the ultra-secret, planet-killing weapon, the Death Star. On the whole, it works well and helps create a momentum that’s supported by the heavy cross-cutting amongst the interconnecting plots this season.  

A central locale around which much revolves is Ghorman, a planet that boasts a single industry: the production of Ghorman Twill, a luxury cloth made from native spider silk. What its citizens don’t know is that deep within their planet resides an untapped mineral that is required for the Death Star’s completion, so the weapon’s chilling instigator, Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), enlists a small team of advisors — including Meero and her boss Major Partagaz (Endeavour’s Anton Lesser) — to figure out ways to exploit the planet and use it to feed the Emperor Palpatine’s ongoing campaign of smokescreewn propaganda. In some way, all of the series regulars will touch the Ghorman storyline, as the planet becomes central to the Rebellion’s formalization and an eventual powder keg for many personal stories as well. 

As for Cassian, he’s now in the fight, working with Luthen as their relationship continues to evolve in more complicated ways, with their moral compasses differing on how best to shape and fortify the Rebellion into an entity that can finally emerge from the shadows. Cassian remains a central character, but he’s less of a focal point as Luna generously shares the spotlight with many of his co-stars. But Luna’s so good that when he does come back into the various narratives, we remember what a grounding force he is as the beating heart of this series. 

Of the four story arcs, the first serves as table-setting for the multitude of intertwining stories that will unfold this season. A one-off adventure challenges Cassian’s leadership style, while Mon Mothma returns to Chandrila for the massive social wedding event of her teenage daughter, Leida (Bronte Carmichael). Her storyline offers valuable insight into a woman who has been portrayed mainly as a figurehead. But this event sets the stage for her own Cassian-like transition. O’Reilly is fantastic in these three episodes as she and Tony Gilroy dig into who this woman was groomed to be by her culture and how breaking free has positioned her to be the leader the Rebellion needs. 

The second arc primarily focuses on the growing impasse between Luthen and Cassian regarding how to treat those being integrated into the Rebellion, particularly the activated Ghormans, as they build an underground resistance similar to the one France established during World War II. What Cassian is willing to sacrifice when it comes to putting average people in harm’s way versus what Luthen sees as necessary becomes more stark, and encompasses how Vel and Cintra are shifting their personal priorities and even Bix’s “value” to the cause as she suffers from her post-torture PTSD. 

All of that is juxtaposed with the personal arcs of Meero and Syril, who might be the most uptight couple in the history of Star Wars. A product of their totalitarian upbringings, writer Beau Willimon does a masterful job of leaning into their comedic absurdity but also keeping them human as they wrestle with the last bits of feeling and conscience they may have left. 

The third arc is the most action-centric but also gifts viewers with some of the warmest moments we’ve seen of Cassian and Bix’s lives. Many of the series’ characters have been defined by pain and violence, making it a breath of fresh air when writer Dan Gilroy sprinkles in a few intimate scenes where romantically connected characters get the opportunity to show one another why they’re fighting. It brings a lot of the stakes back to being very personal. Just as effective are the random connections that underscore the fact that when someone chooses to do right, it can have a greater impact than they ever intended. And in turn, despite all the meticulous planning on either side of the fight, Gilroy loves to reiterate that random choices can also blow the best-laid strategies to smithereens.

Finally, Tony Gilroy and arc writer Tom Bissell are not lazy heading into their endgame events, subverting expectations while earning some shattering outcomes that honor a cross-section of characters and their performers. There is also closure outside of Cassian’s fate, which completes the series’ thesis, emphasizing through community and a mixture of great individual and group sacrifice that darkness can be overcome. Though it’s only Andor, Mothma, Krennic, Ruescott Melshi of the Narkina 5 arc (Duncan Pow), and Partisan leader Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) who we’ll recognize in Rogue One, they will forever represent a deep bench of indelible characters  — good and evil — that do their part in seeing that the Rebellion succeeds on Scarif in Rogue One, and coalesces a movement. 

Even if sci-fi or Star Wars isn’t typically your thing, Andor ascends above genre. It’s fantastic, timely, accessible storytelling, period. Audiences are immersed in this world through incredible production design, sumptuous costume design, and top-tier acting, allowing Gilroy to use Andor as a populist primer on the evils of fascism, the heroism of the individual rising against it, and ultimately, the fallacies of tyranny. What he and his team have accomplished with Andor surpasses the constraints and biases of its genre, achieving greatness as a drama and standing proudly among the best of the best.

Andor Season 2 premieres with three episodes on April 22, 2025, on Disney+, with weekly releases of three new episodes dropping every Tuesday through May 2025.