Andor Sneaks in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith Reference

[Warning: This article contains spoilers for Andor season 2 episode 1.] Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) is on the verge of greatness. “One Year Later,” the first episode of Tuesday’s three-part Andor season 2 premiere, takes place four years before the Battle of Yavin — the Death Star-destroying climax of Star Wars: A New Hope and the first major victory for the Rebel Alliance — and thus the events Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The 2015 prequel film leaves off right where A New Hope begins, with Princess Leia Organa intercepting the plans for the Empire’s super weapon: an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.

As Director of Advanced Weapons Research for the Empire, Krennic was obsessed with completing the Emperor’s long-delayed Death Star project first glimpsed (chronologically) in Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The prequel trilogy ended with Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), new Sith apprentice Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen), and future Death Star commander Tarkin (Wayne Pygram) overlooking the framework for the under-construction battle station, which Krennic is tasked with getting operational by the time of Andor some 15 years later.

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In a top-secret meeting, Krennic assembles members of the Imperial Security Bureau — including Lieutenant Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) and Major Lio Partagaz (Anton Lesser) — for a presentation about a location of great interest to the Empire: Ghorman.

The peaceful planet is known for the durable Ghorman twill made from silk-spinning spiders called Ghorlectipods, but it’s also home to a natural resource of deep substrate foliated Kalkite. Krennic reminds the ISB that Empire’s Energy Initiative is the centerpiece of the Emperor’s agenda: “Access to stable, unlimited power,” he says, “will transform the galactic economy and solidify Imperial authority.”

Krennic explains that Ghorman Kalkite is needed to coat the reactor lenses of the Death Star, and that they’ve promised delivery of the super weapon in three years (or 1 BBY). To mine the planet means making Ghorman unstable, with the invasive Kalkite extraction set to stress the planet’s core to the point of risking total collapse. 800,000 Ghormans would be displaced — or worse — by the drilling, and so the Empire conspires to launch an anti-Ghorman whispering campaign to further suppress Ghorman.

Speaking of unlimited power wielded by the corrupt, “unlimited power” is what Palpatine shouts as he’s disfigured by his powerful Force lightning immediately after killing the Jedi Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) in Revenge of the Sith. It’s not the only reference in the episode, which kicked off with an Easter egg from a ’90s Star Wars video game.

New episodes of Andor season 2 premiere Tuesday nights on Disney+.