Speculation: Cassian Andor series

More exciting news! Not long after they announce The Mandalorian, Disney is on the road to filming another live-action series for their anticipated streaming service. Although details are incredibly sparse at this point, we currently know that it will follow "the adventures of rebel spy Cassian Andor during the formative years of the Rebellion and prior to the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" (StarWars.com 2018). It will be a live-action series with a "spy thriller" bent. And Diego Luna will return to his role as Cassian Andor.

Diego Luna as Cassian Andor, a Rebel operative in the film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. 

In the last speculative post I was excited about the prospects of The Mandalorian in carrying on into the space western genre. My hopes are equally high for a Cassian Andor series. Stories about the people on the ground floor of the Rebellion, sans Jedi and Sith and the great midichlorian saga, I think would be great drama. As much as I love the Force and the ageless epics of space wizards with laser swords, one of the reasons I liked Rogue One was its focus on the non-chosen ones. In the original films they're as much cannon fodder as the stormtroopers, which doesn't really seem fair. Rogue One and Last Jedi make the point that these rank-and-file rebels all have their own stories to tell, that each one of them had a reason to join the fight and different skills to contribute.

Rebel soldiers getting ready to infiltrate Scarif in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. 

Throwing them all into a spy thriller is pretty solid idea. Subterfuge, double agents, sabotage, propaganda? Makes sense in the pre-New Hope era. A series focused on the espionage and grit of the early Rebellion would expand on the themes we got glimpses of in Rogue One. We've been seeing some great recent examples of spy thriller TV series in The Americans, Homeland, and The Man in the High Castle. But I think there's a lot of inspiration for rebels against the Empire sort of stuff from the World War II era. The Empire was originally patterned off of the Third Reich anyway, so the many stories of resistance movements in Nazi-occupied Europe already have a lot of substance that could be echoed in a Star Wars series. Whatever the inspirations, having this new series be a spy thriller would be a logical extension for the genre.

Infiltrating an Imperial base on Scarif with Cassian Andor, Jyn Erso, and K-2S0 in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Possible storylines? I doubt we'll see many of the characters we meet in Rogue One, so that nixes Jyn Erso, Chirrut Imwe, Baze Malbus, and Bodhi Rook. But I imagine we'll end up seeing how Andor and the Imperial droid K-2SO meet, and if we're lucky Alan Tudyk will also reprise his role as yet another awesome mechanical companion. We also might see glimpses of Imperial villains like Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, Grand Moff Tarkin, and Orson Krennic, and rebel leaders like Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, Admiral Raddus, and Saw Gerrera.



I'm not sure that I like this trend of locking all this new content into streaming services, but then Disney was not the first and won't be the last. And to be fair, other streaming services like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu have been using this model to create original and fantastically executed content. And as all of us Star Wars nerds are itching for quality storytelling and a careful exploration of the edges of the canon, this seems like a solid way to deliver. One cannot live off of trilogy movies and animated series alone.

Members of a much more diverse Resistance in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It is possible that in this new series there could be room for more attention to these rank-and-file Rebels.

 References
StarWars.com. 2018. Cassian Andor Live Action Series Announced. Retrieved from: https://www.starwars.com/news/cassian-andor-live-action-series-announced
Photos from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

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