Gosh, I never did talk here about the Star Wars cinematic universe series Andorbeyond posting the trailers back in 2022. Long story short: we watched it, loved it, and have seen it more than once. Good quality all round; in fact, it’s my absolute favorite in the Star Wars tv-verse. The only question was how long will it take to make more…!
Finally, finally, there are trailers and a release date for Andor season 2. Here’s the first:
The trailer music is obviously picked for the lyrics, but it’s an odd choice in terms of mood. But there’s dancing, joyous dancing by the look of it, and Cassian cleans up nice. Clearly a lot of rebellious things also happen. Looks, props, and costumes are good, too, from what there is to see. Some new, atypical environments like the grain field grabbed my interest. It’s good to see so many returning faces among the cast.
And the second trailer:
Andor | Official Trailer | Final Season Streaming April 22 on Disney+ by Star Wars on YouTube
The city in a valley with concentric, star-shaped walls is fascinating; I’d like to see more of that. It has the feel of a medieval castle city, except HUGE. Mon Mothma’s growing terror is chilling to watch; Genevieve O’Reilly is one of my favorites in the series, and she continues to do an amazing job.
A pretty tantalizing behind-the-scenes video has also been released:
Ok, wow. I knew from elsewhere that season 2 will cover multiple years, but somehow I’d missed that the events here, over four years, take us into Rogue One. Sounds too fast, almost, but we’ll see how skillfully they’ll create the overall arc.
Season 2 of Andor is set to stream on April 22, 2025, with a three-parter of a premiere. This time it seems the episodes are grouped and released in threes, with the final bunch released on May 13, 2025. We’ll definitely have to spring for another few months’ worth of subscription.
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“I sense this is only a small part of a larger plan. Some sort of shift to tip the scales.” Now, that sounds interesting—is it a nod to some sort of a loooong-time change in the force whose end we see acted out in the three movie trilogies? I have no idea.
Perhaps more interesting to me is the whodunnit portion of the story, however. I wish a little more about that was included in the trailers.
Sadly, it’s quite short. I’d be happy to have a much longer piece to whet my appetite.
Joonas Suotamo is still listed at IMDB for SW:TA, but unfortunately only for two episodes. Maybe that’s why I haven’t spotted him in either trailer. Looking forward to seeing more of him.
The two-episode opener for SW:TA premiers on June 4, 2024.
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“This isn’t about good or bad. It’s about power… and who is allowed to use it.”
Sounds intriguing. Apparently, however, SW:TA takes place towards the end of the High Republic era, well before The Phantom Menace. That’s completely new to me. Not all new-to-me settings in the Star Wars tv series have been winners, IMO, so whether SW:TA will work for me or not is still very much in the air.
Also, I’ve never been interested in the Sith, and it sounds like the Sith will feature heavily in the series. (Not that I’ve watched much outside the movie trilogies anyway.) However, it looks SW:TA just might provide a more refreshing backstory than a vague ‘they want power and that makes them evil’ handwave. (And I’m sure I’m grossly misrepresenting some SW writers’ thoughts here, but that’s what the Sith appear to this non-superfan.)
What worries me to some extent is they seem to have cast another woman of color as the main antagonist. (Compare to Inquisitor Reva in Obi-Wan Kenobi.) The last thing we need is more typecasting.
(Speaking of negatives: I’ve looked very little into the series and have already seen quite a bit of waah-waahing about too many wimmen starring or whatnot. Look, m’dudes: my money is green, too. If the production is good and shows people like me as active characters and people in their own right, I will pay to see it, and so will many others. Di$ney will love our money just as much as yours.)
One source of joy is that we get to see Carrie-Anne Moss and my countryman Joonas Suotamo in the series, too. 🙂
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Ahsoka Tano seems an interesting character, and Rosario Dawson does a great job with her. I’m also delighted to see more of Genevieve O’Reilly’s Mon Mothma; she’s astounding in Andor. The character of Baylan is completely new to me, but Ray Stevenson I know from a few things (HBO’s Rome series, the Divergent trilogy, and the Thor movies); wonderful to see him get some Star Wars fame, too.
Otherwise it’s difficult to say what the series will be like. I recognize the name Thrawn, but since I barely follow the franchise outside the nine movies, that doesn’t say anything to me (except “obviously bad guy”).
The significant thing seems to be the amount of female characters in the trailer. I’m struggling to think of another SFFnal tv series with this many foregrounded women. Awesome! I do hope that the writing will be nuanced and actors are given lots of character details to play, just like in Andor. (That’s my quality metric for Star Wars series for sure.)
Ahsoka will premier in August 2023.
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Star Wars Day is coming soon (May the Fourth be with you!), so I’ve been thinking about how I got into that universe. My route in was a bit odd.
I’m a little bit too young to have been caught up by the original movies. I wasn’t even born yet for the first one. I vaguely remember when TheEmpire Strikes Back was a thing. Return of the Jedi is the first movie trailer I can actually remember seeing on tv. Even if I had been old enough to go to the movies, though, I wouldn’t have gone to see Star Wars then. It just wasn’t a thing I was interested in.
That doesn’t mean I wasn’t aware of Star Wars. Star Wars merchandise was all over my childhood. Friends had Star Wars lunchboxes and t-shirts. I saw the posters and the toys. Before I was reading on my own, I could recognize Darth Vader and Yoda. Some of the neighborhood kids staged a recreation of a scene from Return of the Jedi. (As the youngest of the group, I was cast as an Ewok. I had no idea what that meant, but all it required me to to was run around and scream unintelligibly, which was about the limit of my acting ability at that age.)
When I did discover science fiction, it wasn’t Star Wars but old reruns of the original Star Trek that lit up my young brain. I was completely hooked on Star Trek and, with the stubborn, stupid loyalty of the very young, decided that there was only room in my life for one Star franchise. For years I scoffed at the Star Wars memorabilia around me and snootily dismissed anyone else’s interest in the movies.
I was nearly in junior high before I finally decided to give Star Wars a try. Oddly enough, though, my first experience of Star Wars was not with the movies themselves. In my school library I found a set of picture books that told the story of the original trilogy movies (the only movies there were at the time) illustrated with stills from the films. My memory of the books is hazy, but at a best guess they were The Star Wars Storybook, The Empire Strikes Back Storybook, and the Return of the Jedi Storybook. I decided to give them a shot.
To my surprise, I enjoyed them, enough to hop on my bike, ride over to the local video rental shop, and check out the movies themselves. It was a weird experience. In a sense, I felt like I had always known these stories. I certainly couldn’t remember a time when I hadn’t known that there were heroes named Luke and Leia who fought a villain in a black helmet while accompanied by a couple of shiny droids. Reading the books filled in the details of a story that already felt familiar. By the time I actually saw Star Wars on screen, I knew who the characters were and what was going to happen. Watching those movies for the first time already felt like revisiting old friends.
Weirdly, one thing that wasn’t spoiled for me until I read the books was the Skywalker family tree. I can still remember the shock of finding out that Darth Vader was Luke’s father and then that Leia was his sister. That may be hard to believe in today’s world of fan sites and social media, but I made it through more than a decade of knowing who those characters were without knowing how they were related. Somehow, in all the years of my childhood, I never heard any of my friends who were into Star Wars put on a deep voice and say “Luke, I am you father.”
Star Wars has a special place in modern pop culture because it is special. It is one of the few stories we all know, even if we’ve never seen it. Whether you love it or not, and however you may feel about the prequel and sequel trilogies or any of the vast outpouring of other media in the Star Wars universe, it’s a story that we all have our own stories about.
In Seen on Screen, we discuss movies and television shows of interest.
We recently rewatched the Star Wars movies. We decided to individually rank the movies from favorite to least favorite, then compare notes. First, our brief thoughts on each movie individually.
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
Erik: Visually beautiful, but the plot drags and the dialogue is ludicrous. Like the other prequel movies, it at least has a clear narrative purpose that operates on two levels: the corruption of Anakin Skywalker and the fall of the Republic.
Eppu: Too messy all round; a travesty of writing not helped by (some of) the acting.
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
Eppu: Least bad of the prequels; only Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman save the movie.
Erik: Despite its weaknesses (especially in the Anakin/Padme storyline), this film comes the closest to the series’ classic pulp sci-fi inspirations.
Star Wars: Episode III – The Revenge of the Sith
Erik: More weak plot and ridiculous dialogue, but there is an atmosphere to this film that sustains it, a palpable sense of an age of beauty and light coming to an end.
Eppu: An intelligent woman—and playing the Smurfette part to boot—is reduced to a walking womb. Yuck.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Eppu: The learning-to-work-together aspect and found family vibes with a heaping of nostalgia offset the grimdark.
Erik: A love letter to the original trilogy, filled with great characters.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Erik: An unnecessary, self-indulgent piece of fanfiction with neither the spirit of the original trilogy nor the narrative purpose of the prequels.
Eppu: It’s just weak all round, and Alden Ehrenreich certainly can’t pull off the role of young Han. (Well, except for propping, sets, and CGI, which at least are very professionally done if not always terribly imaginative.)
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
Eppu: Can’t beat a classic: well edited, scored, acted, with decent if at times very concise writing. Feels a little sparse or basic compared to today’s movie plots, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Erik: There is beauty in how spare the writing and worldbuilding are, giving us just enough that our imaginations can fill in the rest.
Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
Erik: Some great action sequences and character development, but it doesn’t feel like they all belong in the same movie.
Eppu: Darker and more desperate, again well constructed. Nostalgia helps here, too.
Star Wars: Episode VI – The Return of the Jedi
Eppu: Loved it as a kid, but the present me sees the ridiculousness of Ewoks fighting stormtroopers.
Erik: I love seeing Luke’s growth as a Jedi, both in skills and self-awareness, and I like Ewoks versus stormtroopers.
Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens
Erik: While the movie is overly focused on being as Star Wars-y as possible, the new characters are all clearly defined and well acted.
Eppu: Tries to hit all of the same spots as the original trilogy, but ends up trying too much.
Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi
Eppu: Despite its confusion on what the movie wants to be, General Leia and Vice Admiral Holdo kick ass. The entertaining side plot with Rose is also a plus.
Erik: So much wasted potential. This could have been the best movie in the entire series, but it is too obsessed with its concepts to actually tell a story with them.
Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker
Erik: An overstuffed mess of contrived events, plot gimmicks, and fanservice for the worst parts of the Internet.
Eppu: I like best the Rey plus Kylo Ren conflict-turns-into-understanding arc. Palpatine and his cronies are comically, hilariously dark and corny, which almost makes me snort my way through those parts.
Here’s our individual rankings.
Erik’s
Eppu’s
1
Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
2
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
3
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
4
Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens
Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi
5
Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens
6
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi
7
Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi
Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker
8
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
9
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
10
Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
11
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Erik’s comments:
I put Return of the Jedi first for a couple of reasons. First, I love the opening act with the rescue of Han from Jabba’s palace. It’s so well structured, gradually reintroducing us to all the heroes and showing us Luke’s growth as a Jedi. Second, I’m a sucker for any fight in which low-tech beats high-tech, and the Endor battle is one of my favorites.
I like The Force Awakens more than The Empire Strikes Back. I’ve never really been a fan of Empire, although I know it’s widely considered the best movie of the original trilogy. I won’t argue about the strengths of Empire or the weaknesses of Force, but I just enjoy watching Rey discover her Jedi powers and Finn find his footing in the Resistance more than I enjoy watching Luke run around a swamp and Han try to kickstart the Falcon.
I didn’t think there could be a Star Wars movie worse than The Phantom Menace, but then came Solo and The Rise of Skywalker. Phantom at least has beautiful sets and costumes, an action hero queen, and a fantastic lightsaber fight. Rise is a jumbled and unnecessary mess, and Solo is just answering questions that didn’t need answers.
Eppu’s comments:
Overall, I found the nods towards the original trilogy in Rogue One an absolute delight the very first time we watched the movie, and I’ve continued to enjoy them a lot despite the fact that many of them are basically direct copies of dialogue or shots. For me, it’s very close to a perfect combination of homage plus original material. Director Krennic is the only acting job that comes close to unbearable ham (but that may have been how Ben Mendelsohn was directed, as he’s great in other productions).
The strength of Empire for me is the exploration of Luke’s, Leia’s, and Han’s characters when they each hit a rough patch, which is why I ranked it higher than Return. Also Lando turns out to have more depth right from the bat than, say, Count Dooku.
Sadly, the sequels are almost as bad a mess storywise as the prequels, but fortunately they picked more talented core actors and did *not* write in an inept, ham-fisted Asian caricature. (Then again, I gather that the production of the sequels was exceptionally convoluted and involved lots of back-end drama.) Cinematographically, though, the sequels are light years ahead of any of the others, I think.
In hindsight, maybe I should’ve bumped Clones a step down and Phantom a step up—Anakin behaves so fecking creepily towards Padme it’s upsetting to watch. At least in Phantom he behaves more maturely, as odd as it is to say about a little kid, and, like Erik said, there’s pretties to see.
There’s a marked difference in quality between the original and prequel trilogies. I’ve often wondered why that is. (Not having really cared to look for an answer online, though, I can only speculate.) I do have a vague impression of having read somewhere that one reason for the success of the original trilogy was that the editing team—if I remember right, especially Marcia Lucas—wove the storylines into a cohesive, tight, smoothly moving arc. In the prequels, the core of the story largely gets lost among the bling. In a way, it feels like once Lucas effectively was the boss, it was to the detriment of the story.
Granted, we finally got the fight scenes worthy of the jedi; that, plus improved effects (including makeup and costuming), are what the prequels did absolutely right. In the end, however, they visuals are not enough in themselves to pull the prequels up from the bottom.
From the point of view of current viewer (i.e., setting aside any past significance from a technological point of view), action scenes and special effects have improved so much in the past few decades that the prequels cannot offer anything memorable. It’s the strength of the story, the characters, and the acting that a movie must stand on now. In that sense, the prequels have very little to offer me. Moreover, it’s actually rather impressive that we both ranked Solo as the absolutely last one, below the prequels—a mark of a true washout. I’m only sad that the tanking of Solo means my fellow Finn Joonas Suotamo likely won’t get hired for more Chewbacca roles.
There’s so much you could say about all of the movies. At times ranking really wasn’t very straightforward. (How do you properly gauge the messiness of the prequels, for instance. I’m sure if you were to ask me two years from now, I’d list some of the movies differently.)
We know other people have different opinions from ours; we’d like to hear yours!
Image by Eppu Jensen
In the Seen on Screen occasional feature, we discuss movies and television shows of interest.
We all know interesting mashups of genre characters, but this R2-D2 / Captain America mashup really takes the cake:
When you think about it, R2-D2 is very like the Cap: starts small (although R2 never gets larger), doesn’t talk all that much, embodies persistence, can often jury-rig vehicles, kicks (space) Nazi butt, and despite modest beginnings turns out to be one of the most competent characters in the story. I’m all in with this one, LOL!
There’s also what’s apparently not called a trailer but a sizzle reel for Andor from 2020 with some fascinating concept art and behind the scenes glimpses.
The first thing to really grab me was the birch tree in the first trailer (around the 20- to 30-second mark). I love birches despite their evil, evil pollen, but they’re rarely depicted in SFFnal screen adaptations. Now, though, birches are canonical in Star Wars. Woot!
Another thing of note is how different the two trailers are—I’d say the first mostly introduces a mood for the series, while the second starts rolling in the various characters almost at a breakneck speed.
I also loved that Mon Mothma seems to get a much larger role than in previous stories. Plus, Fiona Shaw! Shaw’s a superb actor (whom I know from Killing Eve, a screen adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion from 1995, and as Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter movies) but, sadly, at this point Shaw is credited only for one episode in IMDB. Boo!
Add to all that more of Diego Luna and Stellan Skarsgård (seen in Dune, Chernobyl, the Thor franchise, and many others) plus the astounding set-building, propping, and costuming we’re sure to get in any Star Wars project, and I’m strongly considering a Disney+ subscription.
Andor will release on August 31, 2022, with a three-parter of a premiere.
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Apart from the Empire’s hunt for Obi-Wan, most of the plot seems to revolve around interpersonal conflict. (Those of you who have started watching already may be able to fill us in on this!) There seems also to be an introduction of the first true female antagonist of the franchise. (I don’t count Captain Phasma, as she didn’t get nearly enough screentime.)
Obi-Wan Kenobi was released on May 27, 2022.
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Obi-Wan Kenobi, a live action series with six episodes, is nearly here.
Apparently, the series is supposed to gap the pain of Ewan McGregor’s young Obi-Wan and the hope of Alec Guinness’ old Obi-Wan. That makes for an unusual angle to approach a Star Wars story from, and the first Disney+ series I have any interest in seeing.
At this writing, Obi-Wan begins streaming on Disney+ on May 27, 2022. So soon! (It was supposed to be May 25, 2022, the 45th anniversary of the release of the original Star Wars, but apparently something something—publishing is weird, and tv publishing doubly so.)
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Co-Geeking 
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