Pop Culture Pick: Andor's Triumphant Return

Cassian's back, and he's finally bringing our favourite droid

Image Credit: Disney+

Welcome to Pop Culture Pick, a catch-all for subjects I want to highlight outside of the usual weekly Weekend Watch columns. In this edition, viva la rebellion! Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite, Threads/Instagram: @jammerwhite and Blue Sky: @jammerwhite.bsky.social

Back in 2022, Andor soared on to our screens promising a very different type of Star Wars TV experience. While the likes of The Mandalorian or Ahsoka are more straightforward (yet still very entertaining) renditions of Star Wars on the small screen, Tony Gilroy’s lead into Rogue One was meticulously plotted, gritty (without leaning into the cliches of that description) and incredibly layered, while still bringing the bursts of action you might hope for in a show set in that galaxy far, far away.

Tough act to follow, right? Gilroy and his team really created a lightsaber for their backs, and all eyes are on the new season as to whether it can keep the momentum and maintain the quality level.

My spoiler-free thoughts having inhaled Season 2? Challenge accepted and knocked out of the park. With 12 episodes split across four three-episode chunks (with a year-long gap between each chunk, at least in story terms –– the season rolls out on Disney+ across a month), Andor’s new episodes send us spiraling towards the events of 2016’s Rogue One in a way that leaves your breath catching in your chest.

This is not the black-and-white, goodies-and-baddies Star Wars, this is real world rebellion, politics and struggles overlayed on the building conflict. Here, villains are the bland yet lethal face of ruthless efficiency while our “heroes” shrug off such simplistic terms and reveal themselves to be nuanced, vital, flawed individuals.

Except former Imperial Droid K-2SO (brought to life once more by Alan Tudyk), of course. He has no flaws.

Gilroy, his writers and a directing team that includes Ariel Kleiman, Janus Metz, and Alonso Ruizpalacios, have brought a little miracle to life, a complicated yet utterly compelling examination of the causes of conflict and the lengths both sides will go to achieve their aims.

As for the cast, they’re all superb, led by Diego Luna as main man Cassian Andor (who here is offered more shades), with a sterling supporting cast including Stellan Skarsgård, Denise Gough, Genevieve O’Reilly and Ben Mendelsohn, who reprises his Rogue One role as cape-happy Director Orson Krennic.

But dive deep into the cast list and you find gems, with a returning Kathryn Hunter so passive-aggressively wonderful as the mother of Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) and veteran British Anton Lesser, back as Imperial officer Major Partagaz, the authoritarian with an accountant’s air.

Andor may not inspire rides at Disneyland, but it deserves to have books written about it in future. Do yourself a favour and catch up on Season 1 before you dive into the second.

Andor Season 2 starts with the first three episodes on Disney+ beginning April 22 . I’ve seen the whole season.