ANDOR is Star Wars at the peak of its powers and is the best project in the franchise since the original films. Photo: Disney.
Is there a more divisive franchise in all of media than Star Wars?
Star Wars has meant so much to so many people. It has spanned 50 years, 11 films, 16 shows, countless pieces of merchandise, and its value sits at an estimated $70 billion.
But, and this is a big but, Star Wars has been at a crossroads for almost a decade.
Wind the clock back to 2012 when Disney bought Star Wars for just over $4 billion. The reaction was mixed from fans, and this was only compounded once it finished its sequel trilogy in 2019.
However, one of the shining lights of the Disney era of Star Wars was a spin-off titled Rogue One. It was a more grounded approach to the galactic saga and focused on the rebels responsible for stealing the Death Star plans prior to what took place in the original 1977 film.
While Rogue One was a success financially and critically, one of the film’s shortcomings for a lot of people was its characters. There were no standouts like Luke, Leia or Han Solo, and there was little to no backstory on any of the core group.
So when it was announced in 2021 that Disney was going to create a series called ANDOR, dedicated to one of the protagonists of that film, fans’ immediate reaction of confusion was, for the most part, justified.
Cut to 14 May 2025 and with 24 episodes and two seasons of TV later, fan confusion has turned to universal praise for what may be not only the best Star Wars project since Empire Strikes Back, but Disney’s best TV show ever.
Ok, enough hyperbole, ANDOR is incredible.
Focusing on the eponymous character, we view a man’s ascension from a low-level crook to one of the founders of the rebellion that kicked off the entire Star Wars franchise 48 years ago.
Based on Cassian Andor and a few other major players in the Star Wars universe, the show focuses on their roles in the lead-up to the film Rogue One, which is already a prequel to the first Star Wars film.
Across the two seasons, we witness eight distinct arcs of storytelling. Each spans about a year, told over the space of two to four episodes each.
Each arc is set around distinct events ranging from heists to prison breakouts to senate meetings to extraction missions; each so different from the rest that they could all serve as individual films in their own right.
What makes this series so unique isn’t the hokey religions or ancient weapons that Star Wars is known for. It’s the diplomacy, espionage and in-depth writing, on par with some of the best political dramas of all time!
So much of what makes this great are the backroom deals, the spoken words, the undercover infiltration and two-facedness that members of a galactic fascist regime have to make and have in order to break free.
Viewers don’t see Darth Vader or the Emperor; instead, they get insight as to why the characters in the original films want to break free and rebel.
The themes are similar to those of World War II.
Planets are oppressed; politicians are annexed, corrupt or ignored; people are massacred; and commentary on real-world politics is front and centre.
It is the mature, adult Star Wars content that fans have been itching for for decades.
It’s mindboggling that the same franchise that produced The Acolyte, arguably the worst Star Wars product ever, in 2024, produced this masterpiece.
The production is as good as I’ve ever seen. Gone are the green screen walls and CGI backdrops that have become synonymous with the franchise. Instead, we get custom costumes, on-location filming, detailed miniatures, and the best acting Star Wars has ever seen.
This is all due to the creator of the show, Tony Gilroy.
He saw Rogue One, had a story in mind, sat on it for eight years and assured that it was well planned out and possible before even turning on a camera.
It’s a wonder that a show this intricate can serve so well to the larger universe without feeling out of place or retconning anything that came before it.
From episode one to 24, ANDOR serves as Disney’s magnum opus for Star Wars.
Now that the dust has settled, the Death Star has come into orbit, and the finale, which is as good an episode of TV as I’ve ever seen, has aired, I can say with confidence that ANDOR is one of the best TV shows ever made.
Both seasons of ANDOR are now streaming on Disney+.
