Hear Me Out: No one cares about the new ‘Star Wars’ series, ‘Andor’
You’d think that being a writer for Disney’s Star Wars would be a thrilling space to let your creative juices flow. With a whole galaxy of possibilities to explore, the excitement of cinema’s most popular science fiction franchise is in its infinite imagination, where creator George Lucas has previously taken audiences on trips that have seen giant alien slugs, vast cities in the sky and otherworldly characters who feel tangible and real.
So, who exactly thought it would be a good idea to create a limited Disney+ series about Andor (sorry, spoilers) that one character in the spin-off movie Rogue One who dies at the end? Whilst the Gareth Edwards-helmed sci-fi war movie may indeed be the best Star Wars release since Disney purchased LucasFilm back in 2012, few honest fans of the franchise would say they were highly anticipating the return of the deceased character.
Released back in 2016, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was the first of Disney’s short-lived spin-off movies based on George Lucas’ original trilogy of movies. Telling the story of a group of rebels who seek to retrieve the plans for the Death Star from the grips of the Empire, the film is set shortly before the events of the very first Star Wars movie and is led by Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso and Diego Luna as Cassian Andor.
Released before the uproar of Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi, Ron Howard’s damp Solo: A Star Wars Story and J.J. Abrams’ awful Rise of Skywalker, much has changed in the world of the sci-fi franchise, with Rogue One, Andor and co feeling like they live in an entirely different galaxy, far, far away.
Indeed, the state of the modern Star Wars franchise has come about through Disney’s own making, creating a nostalgia trip whereby the intellectual property became a transparent financial exercise that tries to do nothing new in its pursuit of box office supremacy. From pointless cameos from the likes of Lando Calrissian in The Rise of Skywalker to Darth Maul in Solo, it’s clear that Disney has little idea about how they should handle the world that they spent over $4 billion acquiring.
The sheer bombastic fun of the original trilogy, and even the prequels, has been lost in the gain of something far more generic that emulates the shape and organisation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Built on the wealth of nostalgia that keeps older audience members coming back, Star Wars has long been crumbling on top of a fractured soapbox that force-feeds its audience into thinking nostalgia and the contents of the original trilogy are integral to the future of Star Wars; they aren’t.
Even the merchandise-wearing superfans of the franchise that still cling to such iconic series characters as Darth Vader, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker can admit that maybe it’s time to move on; after 45 years of Star Wars, Disney must leave the safety of Tatooine behind to thrive in the future. The aforementioned likes of Vader, Solo and more will always be iconic, but the more they are dragged out to perform a panto version of their once-glorious selves, the quicker their legacy will spoil.
Take us to new planets where new characters await an untold destiny, and a terrifying unprecedented threat looms large. With Andor, it’s merely ‘more of the same’.
