As you could know, I’m a giant ol’ Star Wars nerd. And one among my favourite issues in Star Wars media is all of the tiny references and Easter eggs embedded all over the place. However generally this fan service goes overboard and derails a narrative in a manner that alienates or bores non-fans. Andor, the latest TV present set within the Star Wars universe, not solely avoids this downside, but in addition finds good methods to make the most of nerdy Star Wars lore with out making it tedious or annoying for people simply wanting to look at a great present.
Andor, which premiered in late September on Disney+, is the most recent entry within the Star Wars franchise and is ready earlier than the occasions of the unique Star Wars movie and the film Rogue One. It follows the lifetime of Cassian Andor, performed by Diego Luna, as he navigates a galaxy managed by the evil Empire. He’s not but the insurgent we all know from Rogue One, however over the course of this season and presumably the subsequent season, he’ll evolve into the person we met in that widespread spin-off.
Folks throughout my timeline have been loving Andor. Even individuals who’d beforehand sworn off Star Wars solely are again and having fun with each minute of the sequence. Lots of them fortunately level out how the present isn’t a large excuse to do fan service each week. However funnily sufficient, Andor has a few of the coolest and most attention-grabbing bits of deep-cut Star Wars lore out of something Star Wars-related in years; it’s simply dealt with so properly that almost all people miss all of it.
An awesome instance is available in how the present handles Cassian’s house planet. Within the first episode of the present, we study that Cassian was born and raised on the planet Kenari. It’s newly created for Andor, which allowed showrunner Tony Gilroy extra freedom to do no matter he wanted with it and its folks. However, technically, we already knew of Cassian’s house planet, and it wasn’t Kenari. Again when Rogue One got here out, Lucasfilm launched varied ebook tie-ins. One reference tome listed Andor’s house world as Fest, an previous Star Wars planet that first appeared within the sport Darkish Forces. So, at first, I believed the present had merely retconned that origin away. I wasn’t too aggravated by this, as I at all times want when Star Wars media concentrate on story over lore.
However then, in Andor episode two, we study that Fest was a lie that Cassian and his adoptive mom advised everybody to cover the reality of the place he was actually from, Kenari. For many viewers, that scene wasn’t that huge of a deal: Cassian lied as a result of he was attempting to cover the place he got here from, acquired it. However for Star Wars nerds like me, it was a implausible technique to retcon one thing utilizing Star Wars lore whereas nonetheless honoring a reference ebook from years in the past. And it didn’t intrude with the present in any respect, permitting regular, non-Star Wars sickos to benefit from the present with out rolling their eyes at some pressured little bit of fan service.
Andor is crammed with Star Wars lore and connections like this that it sneakily deploys in ways in which make sense for common audiences, however which have deeper, attention-grabbing connections to the franchise’s many years of prior materials. And in contrast to the final Star Wars present, the enjoyable (however not almost pretty much as good) Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor doesn’t get snarled in fan service that distracts from the precise story and characters. The refs are there to search out in Andor, in the event you care, nevertheless it’s completely high-quality in the event you simply wish to benefit from the thrilling journey as an alternative.
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For instance, Mon Mothma’s daughter, Lieda, isn’t a brand-new character, however as an alternative a really deep-cut one who barely existed within the previous Star Wars Prolonged Universe. So her popping up within the present not solely introduced her into canon, however was a really enjoyable little bit of fan service that didn’t stick out to most viewers.
Equally, the kyber crystal Luthen Rael provides Cassian as fee for serving to with a heist has its personal delicate connection to previous Star Wars lore. Positive, many viewers most likely know vaguely {that a} kyber crystal powers lightsabers. And plenty of additionally most likely recalled that we beforehand noticed Rogue One heroine Jyn Erso carrying an analogous necklace. However whereas people have been trying on the crystal and going, “Oh that’s a factor I sort of learn about…” Luthen drops one of many coolest bits of lore within the present, explaining that the crystal “celebrates the rebellion in opposition to the Rakatan invaders.” That may have set off alarm bells within the heads of any followers who performed Knights of the Outdated Republic.
That’s as a result of the Rakatans have been created for that sport. They have been an historic race of super-powerful aliens who probably invented hyperdrive and at one level managed the galaxy as a part of their Infinite Empire. Technically, they’ve been talked about in canon earlier than, however that is actually the primary huge re-introduction of the species. Pondering how they may work into future Star Wars tales set far up to now has me very excited.
Talking of online game references, in Luthen’s store—which is chockablock with enjoyable Easter eggs that might fill a complete separate weblog—we see what seems to be a swimsuit of Sith Stalker armor as first seen in Star Wars: The Pressure Unleashed. That sport and its foremost character, Starkiller, are now not canon, and this armor popping up in Andor doesn’t change that. But it surely may trace that maybe at some point elements of Pressure Unleashed can be reintroduced into the fashionable Star Wars universe. I imply, if Jaxxon is canon lately, something can occur.
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However all of those deep-cut references and bits of fan service have been seemingly by no means noticed by 90% of individuals watching Andor, though a few of them straight connect with the plot or the present’s characters. That’s a formidable feat to tug off, and based mostly on interviews with the present’s creator, Tony Gilroy, a number of this was included by Lucasfilm nerds and never himself. He just lately advised Selection that he works carefully with lore specialists like Pablo Hidalgo to ensure he’s not doing something that breaks the Star Wars universe. However for him, his actual focus is on Andor’s story and its characters, not references to manuals or previous video video games.
“The artwork division will sneak in all that crap into Luthen’s gallery,” Gilroy advised Selection. “I had no thought. Like, ‘Oh my God, the factor within the background!’ and individuals are blowing it up. That’s the artwork division. So many cool folks work on the present. There’s a deep geekdom in Pinewood, imagine me.”
That’s the way it needs to be. If Disney desires to proceed to create superb Star Wars productions like Andor, it ought to deliver in additional creators and administrators like Gilroy. Individuals who, positive, won’t be the most important Star Wars followers on the planet, however who’ve attention-grabbing tales to inform. Let these folks create cool stuff whereas the nerds at Lucasfilm fill within the gaps with fan service that weirdos like me can get enthusiastic about, whereas by no means ruining the present for everybody else.
I admit, it is a onerous steadiness to strike, and I don’t anticipate all future Star Wars tasks to be like Andor. In actual fact, I would like a world the place we get each reveals like Andor, that are for everybody, and reveals like Tales of the Jedi, that are good however clearly goal Star Wars nerds like me. Star Wars can’t develop if it solely focuses on its huge followers, and Andor reveals that once you increase the franchise and do one thing completely different, you not solely find yourself pleasing longtime Star Wars nerds like me, but in addition attain a complete new viewers that may by no means have cared about Star Wars within the first place. Plus, Andor is simply actually entertaining, so extra reveals like this appears like a great factor to me.