REVIEW: ‘Andor’ Season 2 Episodes 1-3: A Slow But Great Start To The Final Season
- Christopher Mills
- 3 hours ago
- 5 min read
With Star Wars Celebration 2025 not having much to offer in the form of a coherent plan for where the franchise will be heading in the following years, it’s a time where we must be thankful for Andor, as it’s likely to be the last real television show we get within the Star Wars universe for a very long time. It has been three years since the first season aired on Disney+, which released twelve episodes on a weekly basis. Tony Gilroy created a show that expanded on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, a beloved film that serves as the basis for where Andor is currently trying to make its way to timeline-wise.
Disney+ has dropped the first three episodes of Andor S2, “One Year Later”, “Sagrona Teema”, and “Harvest”. Andor Season 2 plans to drop another twelve episodes and follows a similar format to the last season, where every three episodes was a story arc. The only slight difference with this second and final season of Andor is that they have to fill the gap between Andor Season 1’s finale and Rogue One. This initially led to a lot of worrying, as that’s a steep amount of storytelling to get through, but Tony Gilroy found a way to get through it all. With there being 4 years left until Rogue One, Gilroy ensured that show would be following a three-episode drop weekly, and every week would jump forward a year in the timeline.
These first three episodes are a slight slow start to the season, which is extremely similar to how it went last season, but it needs to move at this pace to allow for all the characters involved to get their time in the spotlight. Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) finds himself stealing a test TIE fighter and getting himself trapped on Mina Rau with the Maya Pei Brigade keeping him hostage in hopes of stealing his TIE fighter. The only issue is that they don’t know how to work it. This plays out through the first two episodes, and at first it can be hilarious with how the Maya Pei Brigade have conflict within their own group, but compared to everything else that’s going on around the galaxy, it ends up being quite tame in comparison.
Krennic was a true force to be reckoned with in Rogue One, but with his introduction in Andor S2, it’s already showcased by Ben Mendelsohn’s haunting performance that audiences are going to get to see how menacing and horrific Krennic can be. It’s within these first two episodes where they begin to plan their control of Ghorman, which we all know will lead to the eventual massacre of their people, a moment in Star Wars that isn’t to be taken lightly, but Gilroy has already set the stones in place for all of this to happen. As slow as these first three episodes may be, they’re clearly paving the way for future story arcs which will move at a quicker pace, which is to be expected as there are three more years to get through before we reach Rogue One.
Where the first three episodes of Andor S2 truly shine is with their strong cast of women, specifically Bix and Mon Mothma, who are both played by the extremely talented Adria Arjona and Genevieve O’Reilly, who already felt like standouts from the first season. Bix is still dealing with the trauma from her torture back in the final episodes of Season 1, and we get to see how badly it affects her. Unfortunately, Bix already has to deal with a lot more trauma by the end of the third episode as an Imperial lieutenant makes an attempt to sexually assault her. A moment that Tony Gilroy writes with such care as he touches on topics that have never seen the light of day in the Star Wars universe before. A certain side of the Star Wars fandom is going to feel negatively affected by this storyline, but it only stays true to the themes that Star Wars has had since Return of the Jedi.
Genevieve O’Reilly originally played Mon Mothma all the way back in Revenge of the Sith (which is now celebrating its 20th anniversary), although she was cut from the film. She returned in Rogue One and came back once more in Andor, allowing us to witness her climb to the notorious Rebel leader we know her as in A New Hope. Throughout these three episodes, we finally get to see the arranged marriage of her daughter Leida to the son of Davo Sculdun. Mon Mothma goes through so much emotion putting her daughter through something she clearly doesn’t want to do but must to make any progress with the rebellion; to see her own daughter not get fulfilled with happiness is one of the worst pains a mother can feel, and Genevieve O’Reilly delivers a powerful performance that can only get better as the season goes on.
Andor's first three episodes of Season 2 may be a slow start to the season, but it's still that grand return to the spy thriller world of Andor that we all missed. The signs of violence and oppression are once again present and being set in stone for bigger moments to happen later in the series, and Tony Gilroy ensures not to shy away from the brutal, harsh realities of the war against fascism that our characters are facing.
Rating: ★★★★☆
About Andor Season 2
Premiere Date: April 23, 2025
Episode Count: 12
Executive Producer/Showrunner: Tony Gilroy
Writer: Tony Gilroy
Director: Toby Haynes
Production: Lucasfilm
Distribution: Disney+
Cast: Diego Luna, Adria Arjona, Genevieve O'Reilly, Ben Mendelsohn, Stellan Skarsgård, Denise Gough, Kyle Soller, Faye Marsay, Varada Sethu.
Synopsis: The second season takes place as the horizon of war draws near and Cassian becomes a key player in the Rebel Alliance. Everyone will be tested and, as the stakes rise, the betrayals, sacrifices and conflicting agendas will become profound. Rife with political intrigue and danger, the series is a prequel to “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” which portrayed a heroic band of rebels who steal the plans to the Empire’s weapon of mass destruction—The Death Star—setting the stage for the events of the original 1977 film. “Andor” sets the clock back five years from the events of “Rogue One” to tell the story of the film’s hero, Cassian Andor, and his transformation from disinterested, cynical nobody into a rebel hero on his way to an epic destiny.