Andorrathe new Star Wars series on Disney+, released the first three episodes on Wednesday, September 21. And crashing onto the scene like a spaceship on an undeveloped world, the series proved that Star Wars is no longer just for children. Disney+ released Andorra, surprising fans with how dark it was. While it’s not about a chemistry teacher who makes drugs, or a sexist 1950s man who sells cigarettes, Andorra sets itself apart by telling the story of what it’s like to be under the heels of a militant police force that has nothing left to lose.
Cassian Andor may be the hero of this story, but he is forced to do despicable things to stay free. The antagonist is not the realm we saw A new hope, but hired some very green private security for a big company. And the rebellion is just a group of ordinary people who are tired of being told what to do. Andor is not a Jedi fighting against galactic evil, but a poor man being abused by an unfeeling system. In this Star Wars series, you know Cassian has to pull the trigger on that man even when you see him begging for his life.
Andor is dark for Disney
The Andorra series opens in a brothel, or rather, on the way to a brothel in the Preox-Morlana Corporate zone. As the rain pours down, we see Cassian Andor walking down a long trail, hooded up, to a dim town. It looks more like Blade Runner then Star Wars. As he walks deeper into a slowly descending alleyway, aliens sell themselves to him in bubbles, and you know this isn’t the fun part of town. After being pushed down by a bouncer, we see him enter the brothel. He must have come out of office hours as there are only two other men sitting at the bar. They are surly and hostile. When a front-of-house woman comes to ask him what he wants, we learn that Andor is looking for his sister, but the woman who could have been her is already gone.
Andor leaves but is followed into an alley by the two men from the bar. They reveal themselves as corporate security and demand bribes. But Andor decides to fight. During the struggle, a laser beam bounces off the walls, hitting one of the bar’s men. Andor gets the gun and the man who is still alive goes to inspect his friend. When he realizes he’s dead, the guy from the bar realizes what’s about to happen. Andor knows that if the security agents found out, they would come after him. He begs Andor and tells him that he will report to his superiors that this was all an accident. But Andor can’t take that risk. He shoots his only witness and leaves.
These are the bets we see in Andorra. It’s personal. Not a war for the galaxy, but a war to stay alive. It takes this unimaginably great conflict and shows it to you on an individual level. Andorra draws less power from cool lasers and fun droids and more from its empathetic story. But don’t worry, it still has lasers and droids. Every unnamed rebel soldier, every future stormtrooper, is a real person with a family and friends. Andorra tries to tell the story of the real people affected by the grand ideologies that motivate the empire and the rebellion. It shows their different levels of belief and how far one can go in the name of justice or freedom, perhaps concepts that are a little bigger than what your average lightsaber fan is looking for.
The Empire and the Rebellion
We get a different view of these two forces than what we normally see from one Star Wars story. For the first time, we look at the empire, or what will eventually become the empire, from a humanistic perspective. When we meet the security forces, at least the ones who work in offices and don’t go to brothels, we see a bunch of lazy bureaucrats just doing their job there. They are not an evil army that wants to conquer the galaxy.
They are just bored people who want to spend their hours and go home. This changes when an ambitious recruit is in charge while the boss is away. He begins to strictly enforce the procedure, despite his boss’s advice, and so begins the hunt for Cassian Andor. This ordinary desk jockey bites off more than he can chew when he decides to go out into the field and carry a gun. He is traumatized by what he sees.
We’ve only gotten a taste of the insurrection so far, but as company security storms through the proletariat streets, metal-to-metal bangs echo through the city telling everyone to enter. It is reminiscent of an old western in which the bartender closes the shop as soon as he sees that a duel is about to take place outside. Stellan Skarsgard’s character, Luthen Raelshows a strong hatred for the Empire when he tells Andor to just kill a captured guard.
But along with his resentment, he carries with him redemptive wisdom when meeting Andor. Though he’s there under the pretense of buying stolen technology, he’s looking for something far more valuable: Andor himself. The series doesn’t try to impress us with CGI and big space battles. It shows us the true spirit of what it means to be the little guy fighting an empire.