Star Wars: Andor was a massive success among fans and critics alike, living up to the praise of its predecessor, Rogue One. With Season 2 just around the corner (on April 22nd), fans are excited to learn more about the characters who played major roles in the first season. One character in particular – Luthen Rael (Stella Skarsgård) – has been a mystery, as he operates under a fake identity on Coruscant and has no qualms about taking the lives of those in his employ. It was Rael who tracked down Cassian Andor in the first place, sending him on a path that would ultimately change his life – and the future of the galaxy – in the process.
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In a recent livestream on StarWars.com, Andor creator, producer, and showrunner, Tony Gilroy, gave insights into what Season 2 has in store for Luthen Rael. As there is essentially no information known about Rael, the possibilities are endless.
Andor Showrunner Gives Insight Into Luthen Rael’s History and Motivations
In the livestream from March 13, Gilroy started out by naming Rael an “accelerationist,” a term that Gilroy explained refers to “somebody who was at the center of something.” Gilroy went on to give deeper insight, stating that an accelerationist such as Luthen Rael is a “rebel leader or a leader who wants to make things worse to provoke change.” Considering the fact that Rael was the mastermind behind the Aldhani heist that was predicated on massive destruction, resulting in suspicion and heightened eyes on rebel activity at the Imperial Security Bureau (ISB), Rael certainly fits the bill of an accelerationist.
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Rael was well aware that the Aldhani heist would lead to a significant escalation in the burgeoning rebellion against the Galactic Empire, thus putting him and other rebels in even more danger than before. This operation wasn’t just a simple robbery; it was a carefully planned infiltration of an Imperial garrison, designed to steal a substantial amount of Imperial credits. What made it so impactful was not only the audacity of the act, but also the ripple effect it had throughout the galaxy. The heist’s success demonstrated that the Empire was vulnerable, inspiring others to resist, while simultaneously triggering a brutal crackdown from the IBS, which heightened the stakes and fueled the flames of rebellion.
Gilroy also discussed what Season 2 of Andor has in store for exploring Rael’s motivations and who he actually is. “We’ll learn a lot about Luthen and who he was before,” Gilroy said in the livestream, “but we’ll also see a guy who built a start-up company in his garage, and [with] Aldhani, he goes public, and it’s going to be the stress of how do you take your little revolution and all the work you’ve done for 15 years, how do you go public with that and how do you go large? So, we’re going to watch him under a great deal of stress.”
Andor Explores the Darkness Spreading Throughout the Galaxy
Like Rogue One, Andor continues to tap into the grittier and darker underbelly of the Star Wars galaxy, where the Empire’s oppressive grasp is seen on a street-level, affecting innocent citizens like Cassian Andor, his mother, and everyone on his adopted home planet of Ferrix. Rael’s incendiary actions resulted in the unrest that pressed survivors of Ferrix – Andor included – into having little choice but to join the Rebellion.
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Andor Season 2 premieres on April 22 on Disney+. Until then, fans will have to wait and speculate what Rael’s intentions and backstory could be.
Souce: StarWars YouTube channel
