Key Takeaways
- Star Wars: Andor’s 2nd season teaser settles the canon conflict regarding the TIE Interceptor’s production timeline.
- Fans pretty much have to accept the changes in Disney’s new continuity as canon, including ships’ deployment dates.
- Andor offers drama, political intrigue, & dystopian elements, with a new season premiere in April 2025.
Star Wars: Andor has fans excited for its upcoming second season, and the first promotional look at the new installment has settled a conflict of canon stemming from the new Disney era of Star Wars media, and it’s one that fans will certainly enjoy seeing regardless of opinion.
The Star Wars franchise has seen a shift in focus since the conclusion of the sequel trilogy, with the IP being used more prominently for live-action projects on the streaming service Disney+, starting with The Mandalorian at the tail end of 2019. However, the high point of the streaming show era of Star Wars is inarguably Star Wars: Andor, a grounded story with elements of a drama, political thriller, and dystopian fiction all rolled up together in prequel-era style science fiction. The show’s first season was a triumph that fans didn’t really see coming from a prequel series to a prequel film (2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story). Since the conclusion of that first installment, fans have eagerly awaited the release date and plot info for Andor season 2, and now they’ve been delivered.
Related
Like It Or Not, Disney Is Taking Another Shot At Making A Star Wars Trilogy
A new trilogy of films is coming from the galaxy far, far away with a notable key creative attached.
Alongside more details about the upcoming season, which is set to continue Andor season one’s decision to present itself in distinct story arcs, fans also got a sneak peek at the upcoming season via a teaser trailer for Disney+ offerings debuted at the recent D23 Brazil event, and one scene from the brief look brings an interesting part of Star Wars to live action. In the footage, which can be seen on the IGN Movie Trailers channel on YouTube, protagonist Cassian Andor can be seen firing up a unique-looking TIE class fighter that older fans will recognize as a TIE Interceptor, a superior model to the oft-seen TIE fighters. The issue is that according to the former Star Wars canon, the TIE Interceptor wasn’t created until after the events of A New Hope, according to Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels from 1997. According to that guide, the ship was made as one in a line of offshoots of the experimental model that Darth Vader utilized in A New Hope. However, that guide and just about everything from that era is no longer considered canon.
While fans have discovered some continuity errors in Andor season one, this latest reveal doesn’t conflict with anything that’s been established since Disney took over the reins of the franchise and relegated the rest of Star Wars’ expansive media library to the Legends continuity. Rather, the decision to include the ship in Andor actually doubles down on a change to the canon that came in the animated series Star Wars: Rebels, which shows the ships earlier than they existed in the old timeline in the fourth episode of its third season. In the new timeline, the ships would predate the events of A New Hope by a few years, and Vader would have received his version prior to its first appearance in the movies as well. Many fans contested the change when it was shown in Rebels for a plethora of reasons ranging from good-natured stubbornness to questions about the design and even the themes of the episode raising doubt about the canon. However, seeing the ship in all its glory on a live-action series settles the debate for all time, and everyone can settle back and enjoy seeing the Interceptor in all its glory for however long Andor gets to keep it.
In the end, fans will have to get used to the idea that everything is fair game in Disney’s new continuity, and Andor’s timeline for the deployment of the TIE variants is the new canon. Settling those sorts of things comes with being the face of the franchise, but that hopefully won’t be the case with Andor for long. With more than one new Star Wars trilogy in active development at Lucasfilm, there’s hope that there’ll be something to take over the heavy burden that Andor has had to bear in recent times as the franchise’s more experimental or nostalgia-driven shows hit or miss in equal measure.
Star Wars: Andor is available to stream on Disney+, with the second season set to premiere in April 2025.
Andor
More
Star Wars’ Jedi Series Ending Accommodates a Possible Upcoming Adaptation
Cal Kestis’ final chapter will bookend a golden era in Star Wars media and with a new movie trilogy there will hopefully come more adaptations.