I Think Andor Is Perfect (Here’s How to Make More Star Wars Like It)

Andor is a masterpiece. There’s really no other way to describe the show. Andor‘s first season surprised viewers with the way it used its setting and characters to tell a story about the dangers of fascism to the most endangered people — refugees and the working poor — while also showing the effects it had on other aspects of society. Star Wars has been in a not-so-great place since Disney took over, but Andor was a refreshing change of pace. Andor‘s second season went further in that direction, showing the horrors of fascism and what it takes to fight against it. Andor Season 2 ended beautifully, and the care it showed to its characters and story paid off.

I think that Andor was a perfect show in every way. Its characters and stories resonated so well because of the care put into every aspect of the series. No one ever expected it to be as good as it was, and it’s going to go down as not just the greatest Star Wars project ever, but also one of the greatest achievements in television history. Star Wars has been in trouble for a while now, and there are a lot of fans who don’t think Andor can be replicated. However, that’s not the case, and more projects like this can be made as long as they learn the lessons of Andor.

Andor Is the Way

Andor succeeded for one reason: craft. Right off the bat, before we even get into anything about the Star Wars stuff, we have to talk about that. The writing, the directing, the camerawork, the sets, and the acting are all examples of a group of people who are devoted to using all of their skills to create a work of art. Starting with creator Tony Gilroy and moving on down, this is a group of people who believed in Andor and put forth their greatest effort to make the show work. Andor, first and foremost, is a story about fascism and what it does to every level of society, something that resonates right now more than ever. Andor would work as a story without the setting of Star Wars because it’s not trying to tell a Star Wars story first and foremost. However, that doesn’t mean that it didn’t tell an amazing Star Wars story, all the same.

Andor used the setting of Star Wars as a universe perfectly. I’m a Star Wars fan who grew up with the West End Games Star Wars Roleplaying Game. I used to buy the sourcebook so I could have more Star Wars lore to devour. I read the Legends’ history of the Rebel Alliance a million times, about the Ghorman Massacre, and Mon Mothma and Bail Organa’s role in the Rebellion. Andor found a way to take the same kind of storytelling from that period of Star Wars and shape it within the new Disney canon. It’s not important that Andor used the story of the Ghorman Massacre so much as they captured the feeling of that horrific event. They brought entirely new aspects to it. They took old ideas and made them a million times better. Not only that, but they also incorporated the new canon ideas set up by shows like Rebels, uniting two different eras of Star Wars storytelling perfectly. This is what Star Wars can be.

RELATED: Star Wars Just Introduced a Major New Character With Andor’s Final Scene

Star Wars, in recent years, has been in a bad place. Star Wars was always a product to a certain extent, sold to fans as much as possible, but under Disney, it’s felt even more like one. However, the stories haven’t really been up to snuff for a lot of fans. Some people want Legends back. Some people don’t. Some people hate the Sequel Trilogy but love the Prequel Trilogy, some people hate the Prequels and love the Sequels. Recent Star Wars projects have failed, both from a viewership standpoint and from a quality standpoint. Most people don’t expect Star Wars to be good anymore. At best, they expect it to be crowd-pleasing fluff. Andor shows that it doesn’t have to be the case.

The key to saving Star Wars as a creative piece of fiction is by doing what Andor did. Don’t start with the idea of telling a Star Wars story because there have to be Star Wars stories; instead, start with the kind of story you want to tell. Andor isn’t about Star Wars; despite being a prequel to a beloved Star Wars movie, it’s about people dealing with fascism. Star Wars is a sandbox where any kind of story can be told, and the story is the important part. If Lucasfilm wants more successes on Andor’s level, they need to find creators with stories to tell that can be slotted into Star Wars, instead of Star Wars stories. Those are the kinds of stories that people get passionate about, and passionate people make better stories.

There Can be More Star Wars Like Andor

Star Wars feels, more often than not, like a cage nowadays. There are things that people expect from Star Wars, and unfortunately, it’s not good stories. They want their canon, their favorites, they want fan service. Andor showed that Star Wars didn’t have to be that way. The series found a way to be everything for everyone because at its core, it’s a story from a group of people who are deeply passionate about that story. They created something amazing. And it can happen again.

Not all Star Wars needs to be Andor quality, but it can still take lessons from Andor. Look at Skeleton Crew — Skeleton Crew was a coming-of-age ’80s kids romp set in the Star Wars Universe. It didn’t have to be a Star Wars story to be entertaining, because the people who made the show had a story to tell that they believed in and wanted to tell, and it was. Andor already showed the way forward for Star Wars, and it works. It’s time to treat the Star Wars Universe as a place to tell stories, not a place just to tell Star Wars stories.

Andor‘s full two seasons are streaming now on Disney+.