As previously mentioned, Star Wars Celebration is going on right now, and the biggest reveal of the first day was undoubtedly the teaser for Andor, a Rogue One prequel series centered on Diego Luna’s Rebel spy character, Cassian Andor. I am super f-cking burnt out on Star Wars, but guys, this teaser is GREAT. Just a really well-cut piece of work that reminds you that trailer editing is in and of itself an art form. To be fair, Star Wars trailers are usually a cut above, even the weakest of their recent offerings have had cool trailers. But this one is REALLY good, the editing is very sharp and giving us a broad view of what Andor will be, which is, like Rogue One, a “street level” take on the Star Wars universe.
I like that we see everything from rural settings to big cities, fancy people to working class workers to an agrarian village. The best parts of Rogue One—an admittedly sloppy movie that is still the second-boldest vision in the New New Star Wars era—are its ballsy ending and the on-the-ground view of the Rebellion. No Jedi, no lightsabers, no Skywalkers, just regular folk doing regular folk sh-t while being steadily crushed under the Empire’s oppressive boot. It’s hard to remember because precious little of Star Wars storytelling focuses on anything else, but Luke Skywalker walked into a large-scale, ongoing revolt, of which he was just one part. I like any little scrap of story that reminds us that this world is bigger than Skywalkers and that the Rebels aren’t a polished army, they’re a network of allies across planets sharing meager resources and intelligence and trying to save themselves because as far as they know, no help is coming. The Jedi are gone, there are no space wizards to ride to the rescue (just yet).
Andor is going to be two, twelve-episode seasons, bigger in scope than any live-action Star Wars show to date. (The Mandalorian is entering its third season, but only has sixteen episodes total so far.) If it delivers on the promise of this teaser, Andor could be something of a reset for Star Wars, refocusing the story outside the narrow sphere of Skywalkers and Jedi, maybe even opening up new channels of storytelling in the wider Star Wars world. Also, I hope that guy and his big bell play a big part in this. Look at him, he’s so stoked to be hitting his big bell. May we all be as content in our lives as Big Bell Guy is in his.
