Andor S2: How a Star Wars show became streaming's best political thriller (2025)

Andor 2

Disney+
★★★★★

In 2022, the first season of Andor made a great impression on critics and Star Wars fans by doing something no one believed was possible – in the story of the Rebel Alliance versus the evil Empire, the science-fiction series uncovered a gripping political thriller.

Showrunner and writer Tony Gilroy specialises in stories of men seduced into the arms of a corrupt regime, who later use their insider knowledge to topple the system, as seen in his screenplays for the legal thrillers The Devil’s Advocate (1997), Michael Clayton (2007) and the first three Bourne spy films (2002 to 2007).

Set five years before the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), the prequel to Star Wars: A New Hope (1977), the series follows Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) as he moves from apolitical cynic to becoming the determined intelligence officer seen in Rogue One.

In the early episodes, he, like many of Gilroy’s heroes, is complacent. He is a thief, living only for himself and his adoptive mother Maarva (Fiona Shaw). A brush with the brutality of imperial rule shakes him, so that by the end of the first season, he is a man with nothing to lose, ready to be recruited into the rebel cause.

The show’s second and final season premieres on Disney+ on April 23. Here are three reasons to watch it.

Villains who see themselves as the good guys

Andor answers the question of how Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine can run an empire from their desks. Regimes may be founded on ideology or a cult of personality, but cannot thrive without a civil service. Empires persist because middle managers and desk jockeys keep trying to hit monthly quotas.

The imperial civil service, in all its sprawling, cubicle-packed glory, is where former security officer Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) finds himself in Season 1. From here, he must ascend the ranks by being more thorough and ruthless than the next guy.

Characters like Syril and imperial security officer Dedra (Denise Gough) – a highly intelligent woman who has to be twice as tough as her male colleagues to be viewed as an equal – are layered and believable.

In Season 2, in a sly twist, viewers might even find themselves rooting for Syril and Dedra. After all, they are two people trying to live their best lives, who happen to own fascist jackboots.

Competent evil versus incompetent good

The squabbling side of the Rebel Alliance is highlighted. In real life, rebel militias often burn out through infighting and mutual mistrust long before they can make a dent in the central government. In the Star Wars movies, being reckless and spirited are the reasons the rebels succeed; in Andor, it is why they fail.

In another of the show’s nods to real politics, the few competent rebels are those from the ruling class, such as the aristocratic Senator Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly, reprising her role from Rogue One) and wealthy antiques dealer Luthen (Stellan Skarsgard). Luthen casually sends his people to their deaths – in war, clean hands on either side are a fantasy.

It is not afraid to get political

There are so many references to the current state of affairs that the show can be said to be the Disney+ streaming service’s closest thing to political critique.

In Season 1, Andor is a smug centrist who believes the imperial forces will bother only certain groups. As long as he blends into the majority, he will be safe.

That theory is shattered in one blackly comic encounter with security forces, who could not care less about his identity or his crimes. All they are interested in is rounding up the politically powerless for the prison labour force.

In Season 2, the allusions to present-day headlines are more stark. The Empire, as represented by weapons director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), is desperate for a resource grab through military action, but baulks at being seen as the aggressor.

What do Darth Vader’s people do? They bring in marketing experts to teach officers how to poison galactic opinion against the natives they are about to destroy. The Sith Lord would approve.

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