The most recent Star Wars series on Disney+, The Acolyte, is seeing the same hyper-critical response from viewers that most of franchise's shows have seen since Disney bought Lucasfilm. But one show has seemingly been immune to that backlash thus far -- Andor. The Rogue One prequel series starring Diego Luna is widely seen as the best thing to come from this modern age of the franchise, just as many people love RO above the rest of the new SW movies. With Season 2 on the way, Luna, has been teasing heavy connections to the film, but what's even more exciting is that one of the stars of the blockbuster has been confirmed to appear during the season season.
Who's Reprising Their Rogue One Character For Andor?
We've always known that Andor was designed to end somewhere very close to where Rogue One: A Star Wars Story begins for Diego Luna's Cassian Andor. So we've expected that we might see characters from the film make appearances on the series. Now, that has been confirmed, as The Playlist reports that Ben Mendelsohn, who played Imperial Officer Orson Krennic in the movie, will be appearing during the new season.
Exactly how big a role Orson Krennic will have on Andor Season 2 is far from clear. It's being suggested that he'll appear in a small capacity near the end of the season as part of the lead-in to the events of the 2016 flick. That's certainly possible. The first season was broken up into different chapters with significantly different stories. Seeing Krennic in one of them makes sense, but it's also possible that he could be playing a larger role.
Whatever the plan, Diego Luna was also hyping up the Rogue One connections for the second season during a recent appearance.
What Diego Luna Said About Andor Season 2
During an appearance at ACE Superhero Comic Con 2024, (via Popverse), Diego Luna talked a little bit about the plans for Season 2 of Andor. It sounds like the new episodes will be especially great for fans of Rogue One: A Star Wars: Story, as the events of that film will be closer to happening. Thus the new season will start to put all the pieces in place. Luna said…
I can tell you, Rogue One is coming, so there will be characters there that you will recognize. There will be cool stuff. For those who love Rogue One, this season is going to be very special. And it’s going to be fascinating to go straight to Rogue One after watching this second season, because you will see Rogue One from a different perspective. I promise you that.
There’s at least one other character, besides Krennic, that Cassian Andor hadn't met by the end of Andor Season 1 that we know he’ll meet before the events of Rogue One. K-2SO is an Imperial droid, voiced by Alan Tudyk, that Cassian himself reprogrammed. If we know we’re going to see any characters from the movie, the droid seems almost a shoo in to be one of them. He was a fan-favorite, so a lot of people will likely be excited to see how the two came together.
The second season reportedly wrapped filming earlier this year, but we haven't heard much in the way of announcements regarding the Andor Season 2 cast beyond the returning stars from Season 1. Ben Mendelsohn is the first big name we've heard that marks a new addition to the ensemble. With the new episodes not expected to debut until 2025, Lucasfilm is probably holding off on most major announcements until the episodes are closer to release.
While Diego Luna was light on details, he did promise that the second season, which is already set to be the final one for his series, will resolve everything that's already been set up on the sci-fi drama. Except, of course, for the fate of Cassian Andor himself, which is already known. Luna continued…
It’s fantastic. The only thing I can tell you is what happens at the end. It’s the world upside down. That’s the only thing you don’t talk about in an interview, but here we all know what the end is. I can tell you one thing, Tony Gilroy is a fantastic writer, and he created amazing characters that we got to meet in Andor season one. It’s going to be a very rich second season, because all those stories matter today. It is a true ensemble piece. It got very complicated in season one, and everything has to get resolved. Every story matters.
As somebody who absolutely loved Andor and Rogue One, I can’t wait to see what happens with the new season. Gareth Edwards' film itself changed the way that we looked at the original Star Wars trilogy, so the idea that the new season of Cassian's show could alter our perceptions of the spinoff film is equally exciting.
For now, make sure you have a Disney+ subscription so that you can check out Andor Season 2 when it premieres. You can also take a look at the 2024 TV schedule if you're in need of something to watch at this time.
