Commentary: The Power In Knowing The End Of ‘Andor’
by Frank Martin
There’s a special kind of magic to prequels. Because they take place before the original tale, audiences have a certain amount of knowledge going into the story. They more-or-less know what a character’s fate is going to be beforehand. Theoretically, this should take a lot of suspense out of the story. After all, if audiences know beforehand if a character is going to live or die, it removes an element of surprise. There is also power in knowing what a character will become and how he or she will grow over time. This is exactly what happened with Andor.
The Disney+ series serves as a prequel to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the real story behind the Rebels obtaining the Death Star plans. The program follows a Rebel Alliance intelligence captain named Cassian Andor (Diego Luna). But it starts long before Cassian has become a spy for the Rebellion. He is simply a man trying to live a life under the thumb of the Empire. Eventually, he falls under the employ of spymaster Luthen Real (Stellan Skarsgard), who serves as his gateway to the Rebel Alliance and, ultimately, Cass’s demise during the mission to steal the Death Star plans.
Knowing that Cassian will eventually die in Rogue One might make an entire series about him seem irrelevant. However, knowing the sacrifice that he will eventually make is kind of the point. Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) is held up as the chosen one, a hero right from the start. Cassian Andor was not even close to that status. He was just a regular guy who got caught up in something much larger than himself, and that’s what Star Wars is all about. The Rebels were a group of ragtag individuals thrown together by circumstance and faced incredible odds. Cass’s journey from humble beginnings to an integral part of blowing up the Death Star is an incredible thing to watch, and knowing the sacrifice he will eventually make looms over the entire show, heightening the experience.
Andor is now streaming on Disney+.
