Lucasfilm’s Andor is getting a new title for its upcoming second season, as the show will be known as Andor: A Star Wars Story moving forward. This development was announced during the Showcase Panel at D23 Brasil, where Andor was heavily featured.
After the panel, the official Star Wars website recapped all of the news revealed from the galaxy far, far away, including a title card for Andor Season 2. Check out the image in the space below:
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The “Star Wars Story” branding will be familiar to fans, as it was used for the standalone films released in between Skywalker Saga installments. Of course, that includes 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which was Diego Luna’s first appearance as Cassian Andor. As the first Star Wars movie to take place outside the mainline series, Rogue One was something of a risk for Lucasfilm, but it paid off to the tune of over $1 billion at the worldwide box office and positive reviews. Its success suggested there could be a lucrative future for these kinds of spin-off stories.
[Related: Andor Season 2 to Cover Three Days Before Rogue One]
However, Lucasfilm dropped the “Star Wars Story” moniker after 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, which was the property’s first commercial bomb. There were plans for more “Star Wars Story” movies, but those were abandoned after Solo disappointed, with some of them being repurposed as TV series for Disney+. There has been no shortage of Star Wars projects over the past handful of years, but Lucasfilm has opted to brand them simply by placing the franchise’s classic, recognizable logo over the show’s title.
Bringing this particular branding back for Andor Season 2 is a curious decision, but it makes some sense. It provides connective tissue between the acclaimed series and Rogue One, recalling memories of what’s become a fan-favorite film. The second season should tie even more directly into the movie; Luna has teased it will change the way audiences watch Rogue One. Andor Season 2 features a unique narrative structure, depicting the four years before Rogue One in separate three-episode arcs. The last of that bunch is said to be set just a few days before the events of the spin-off film, which might have had something to do with the name change.
Perhaps the reasoning for the shift will become clearer when Andor Season 2 premieres in April 2025. It’ll also be interesting to see if this is a one-time thing or if the studio will use “A Star Wars Story” regularly moving forward. Lucasfilm may have wanted to distance themselves from the term in the wake of Solo, but that film didn’t bomb at the box office because of a logo. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the “Star Wars Story” branding, which evokes the feeling of a grand, entertaining tale befitting of such a legendary franchise. With Andor being one of Disney’s most successful Star Wars projects, maybe it’ll spark a comeback.
