How the Andor season 2 story will connect to Rogue One and the wider Star Wars universe
By Richard Edwards |It’s no spoiler to say we know how the Andor season 2 story ends. The show’s creator/showrunner Tony Gilroy (writer on Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne movies) has already confirmed that its final episode will run directly into 2016 movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, with eponymous Rebel Alliance spy Cassian Andor travelling to the Ring of Kafrene to meet an informant.
In the Andor season 2 plot, Andor and his Rebel paymasters Mon Mothma and Luthen Rael (find out more about them in our guide to the Andor season 2 cast) will go public with their Rebellion, and try to find out more about the evil Galactic Empire’s powerful new superweapon. You know it as the Death Star…
The journey will, however, be just as important as the destination, so we don’t yet know how the ins and outs of the Andor season 2 story will unfold – aside from the fact that the 12-part season (the show’s last) will tell the story of the Rebel Alliance and the Empire over four years running up to Rogue One. But because Andor occupies a distinct sector of the Star Wars chronology (flanked on both sides by existing canon), we can explain how it fits into the wider timeline. Here’s how the Andor season 2 plot connects to Rogue One and the wider Star Wars universe.
Not seen Andor? Here’s why you should watch the Disney+ show, even if you don’t like Star Wars.
Before Andor
That famous galaxy far, far away is in a bad way when Andor’s first season kicks off. In Star Wars chronology, it’s around 14 years since Anakin Skywalker famously turned to the Dark Side of the Force and became Darth Vader in Revenge of the Sith (2005). At that time, Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine (aka Darth Sidious, the dark lord of the Sith who cunningly manipulated both sides in the famous Clone Wars) proclaimed himself Emperor and turned the Galactic Republic into the Empire. He also declared every single Jedi Knight an enemy of the state, and had them executed by the Clone Troopers who’d previously been their allies.
As we’ve seen in the Solo: A Star Wars Story movie (2018), and the Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) and The Bad Batch (2021-2024) TV shows, the Empire has spent the last decade and a half ruling the galaxy by force. Its military and bureaucratic machine has expanded aggressively, with free speech severely punished and the influence of democratically elected senators drastically reduced. Meanwhile, the few remaining Jedi live in hiding, ruthlessly hunted by Darth Vader’s Inquisitors – mostly former Jedi who’ve switched sides.
The likes of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and more political figures such as future Rebel Alliance leader Mon Mothma and Alderaan’s Senator Bail Organa (Princess Leia’s adoptive dad) are plotting in secret, waiting for the right moment to take the fight to the Empire – which, for some of them, will come in Andor season 2.
Star Wars Rebels
Andor runs parallel to an existing TV show in the Star Wars timeline. Animated series Star Wars Rebels ran for four seasons from 2014-2018, and is set in the same five-year time period leading up to A New Hope (1977), aka the original Star Wars movie. As such, Rebels offers up a few clues about what to expect in the Andor season 2 plot
Rebels focuses on the crew of the Ghost: Jedi-in-exile Kanan Jarrus; his hot-headed apprentice Ezra Bridger; ace pilot (and ship’s captain) Hera Syndulla; graffiti-obsessed Mandalorian warrior Sabine Wren; team muscle (and one of the last of his people following an Imperial massacre) Zeb Orrelios; and surly astromech droid Chopper – think R2-D2 but with more attitude.
At the beginning of the show they form a lone Rebel cell striking against the Imperial occupation of Bridger’s homeworld, Lothal. In fact, they’re so successful that their activities are noticed by both the Empire – who unleash ruthless military mastermind Grand Admiral Thrawn to sort the problem – and other Rebel groups. Over the course of the show, various outfits opposing the Empire coalesce into the larger, more organised Rebel Alliance that will (a few years down the line) overthrow the Emperor in Return of the Jedi (1983).
However, it’s unlikely that any of the Ghost crew will appear in Andor season 2 – not beyond a fan-friendly cameo, anyway. Not only are they busy in the vicinity of Lothal, their adventures in the more mythical corners of the universe – crossing paths with Inquisitors, space whales and even Darth Vader – would feel out of place in the more grounded world occupied by Cassian Andor.
And while Kanan Jarrus doesn’t survive to the end of Rebels, the stories of Sabine, Hera, Ezra, Chopper and Thrawn continue in Ahsoka (2023-) – this Star Wars TV show is set several years after Return of the Jedi, and focuses on Anakin Skywalker’s former apprentice, Ahsoka Tano (who also appears in a few episodes of Star Wars Rebels). Zeb has also had a brief cameo in The Mandalorian (2019-), set around the same time as Ahsoka.
Nonetheless, there’s sure to be some crossover. For starters, Senator Mon Mothma – one of the lead characters in Andor season 2 – features prominently in Star Wars Rebels. Indeed, having been working against the Empire in secret for many years, she eventually breaks cover to condemn the Empire’s massacre of innocent civilians on Ghorman, and is declared a traitor. She’s subsequently forced into hiding and – following her resignation from the Galactic Senate – brings numerous factions together to form the Rebel Alliance.
All this takes place around two years before the recovery of the Death Star plans in Rogue One, so will have a bearing on Mon Mothma’s character arc. Fans are also speculating that scenes in the Andor trailers depict the Ghorman assault, so it seems likely this will be a pivotal moment in the Andor season 2 plot – and that Mothma will spend a decent chunk of the season in exile. Star Wars Rebels also confirms that she’ll be relocating to Yavin IV, the moon from which the Rebels launch their Death Star assault in A New Hope.
Insurgent Rebel leader Saw Gerrera – a man whose extreme methods ensure he’s disowned by the Alliance leadership – also straddles the two shows. During his last appearance in Star Wars Rebels, he (along with Ezra Bridger and Sabine Wren) board a transport ship carrying a giant kyber crystal and a group of captive scientists who are experts in power distribution and reactors. They also overhear references to the Jedha system.
They don’t know it at the time, but all of these things are pivotal to the Empire’s Death Star project: kyber crystals power its super lasers, the moon of Jedha is an abundant source of the crystals (and a pivotal location in Rogue One), and those prisoners are presumably being lined up to work with lead scientist Galen Erso (who introduced a fatal flaw into the Death Star designs) on the battle station. Saw sabotages the crystal, rigging it to blow up in a colossal explosion, and escapes with his sidekick Edrio. From this moment, he becomes obsessed with tracking down the Emperor’s planet-killing new toy.
(Incidentally, in canon, Gerrera’s own three-pronged insignia was combined with Sabine Wren’s Starbird tag to create the famous Rebel Alliance logo.)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Showrunner Tony Gilroy has confirmed that the Andor season 2 plot will lead directly into Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,the 2016 film telling the story of how a group of brave Rebels recovered the plans to the Death Star. We know they’ll be led by Cassian Andor, the Rebel Intelligence operative whose origin story is the main focus of the show, and that his droid best friend from that film – a reprogrammed Imperial security droid named K-2SO – will make his canonical debut in the Andor season 2 story. Over the course of the upcoming 12 episodes, Cassian will evolve from cynical outsider to a man who’s prepared to sacrifice everything for the Rebellion in Rogue One. (Everyone on that mission ultimately dies in order to get those blueprints to Rebel command.)
Director Orson Krennic, head of the Death Star project and the main antagonist of Rogue One, will also be a crucial character in the Andor season 2 story.
As for Mon Mothma – as also confirmed by Star Wars Rebels – she’s long made her home on Yavin IV, and voices her opposition to the Rogue One mission. Andor season 2 is unlikely to end well for Saw Gerrera, however. While he’s fit and well when he abandons Ezra and Sabine in Star Wars Rebels, the man we meet in Rogue One has lost a leg and requires mechanical assistance to breathe. Presumably one of his ‘whatever it takes to defeat the Empire‘ missions is about to go very, very wrong in one of the show’s final episodes. Gerrera dies in Rogue One when the Empire tests the Death Star on the aforementioned Jedha.
The original Star Wars trilogy
This is the bit everybody knows.
Ultimately, Cassian Andor, K-2SO and the rest of the team will recover those Death Star plans, which will be delivered to Princess Leia on the Tantive IV blockade runner. From there she’ll get captured by Darth Vader, but keep Rebel hopes alive by hiding the plans inside a certain R2-D2. The droid will then meet Luke Skywalker on Tatooine, who’ll find Obi-Wan Kenobi, hitch a ride with Han Solo and Chewbacca, rescue Princess Leia from the Death Star, and help the Rebel Alliance destroy the battle station with a “one in a million” shot from Luke’s X-Wing. The rest, as they say, is history.
(In canon, Mon Mothma will next be seen when she discusses the discusses the loss of some Bothan spies during the briefing for the Rebels’ assault on the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi.)
