You’d have thought that the best Star Wars show Disney has ever produced would have been promoted a little more. Disney has finally decided to widely advertise Andor, their best Star Wars show released to date, by showcasing the first two episodes on ABC during Thanksgiving.
Disney has mismanaged Star Wars so bad that’s its honestly comical at this point. After years of putting out sub-par and/or dreadful Star Wars project, Disney finally struck lightning in a bottle with Andor.
Following the backstory to the Rouge 1 secondary protagonist, Cassian Andor, the show focuses on the rise of the Rebellion, the different players in the early Rebellion days, the pre-Rebellion life of Andor, the intricate bureaucracy of the Empire, and how all of these players and parts unite to lead us to the events of Episode IV: A New Hope.
Truthfully, I was very skeptical of the concept and focus of the show on a character that was only seen in one spinoff movie (and he died in said movie), but all of my doubts have been surprised as each episode released.
The show has provided fantastic backstory and motivations to some of the peripheral characters of the Rebellion from the OG Trilogy and the spinoff movies, such as Mon Mothma, Saw Guerra, and Cassian Andor, while it has also introduced some of the best Star Wars characters ever, such as Luthen, Dedra Meero, Kino Loy, and Major Partagaz.
(Disney/Star Wars-Andor-Official Trailer)
Plus, it has the best writers and directors Star Wars working behind the scenes since George Lucas was in charge of the franchise.
Unlike some other live-action shows that I won’t name (cough…Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi…cough), Andor’s writers have actually given thought, direction, and more than an hour of their time to script revisions to make the plot and character motivations seamlessly blend with one another.
And that’s why this show has received such critical and fan acclaim…and why Disney is desperate for the general public to see it.
It’s no secret that Andor’s fanbase has been…well…small, to put it kindly. Like I said, the show features side characters and trivia-question locations as its major players, which has hurt its general appeal to the public and ‘casual’ fans who normally tune in once a show’s popularity has been widespread.
Yet, I don’t blame them as it can be difficult remembering and matching the names of characters like Andor, Morlana One, Ferrix, Dedra Meero, Mon Mothma, and Anton Krieger to the faces and locations that they belong to. And I’m a Star Wars fan.
But I’m not letting Disney off the hook as they not only have damaged Andor’s reputation before the show came out by putting out subpar live action shows in the past, but they also hid it (along with every other show) on Disney+.
Now, I’m not saying that I dislike Disney+ as I actually think it’s one of the Top-3 streaming services out there, but I am saying that its incredibly obscure from the popular culture/media relevancy.
Just think when the last time was you said to yourself, “Hey, this enormously popular/high-profile show, such as House of the Dragon, Stranger Things, Rings of Power, the Jeffrey Dahmer mini-series, The Crown Season 5, and Better Call Saul, is dropping on Disney+ tonight and I HAVE TO WATCH IT IMMEDIATELY!” Yeah, never.
(Disney/Star Wars-Andor-Inside Look at Narkina 5)
Disney+ is known as the place to watch classic Disney movies and franchises, old animal, nature, and history documentaries, and cringy ‘Disney+ Originals’. Aside from The Mandalorian Season 1 and maybe Obi-Wan Kenobi (and that’s a huge stretch), there hasn’t been a ‘blockbuster’ release on the platform that resembles anything close to what Netflix, HBO, and Amazon has been able to produce.
And Disney knows that. Why else would they completely buck the trend of their ‘Disney+ exclusive’ model by showcasing the first two episodes of Andor on cable network (for free, no less) during the Thanksgiving Holiday if they weren’t trying to broaden the interest of Star Wars, which has sadly become a dying brand under their stewardship.
Andor and The Mandalorian is their only hope (as Princess Leia would say) back with the Star Wars franchise after the utter catastrophe which was the Sequel Trilogy.
(PS: Oh, and I may have forgot to write a review for Andor Episode 10. So, I’ll give a short, once sentence review right now: It was great! Andor Episode 10 gets a 9.7/10.)
Images Source: Featured Image: (Disney/Star Wars) (Andor | Inside Look at Narkina 5 | Disney+ – YouTube)
In Text Image 1: (Disney/Star Wars) (Andor | Official Trailer | Disney+ – YouTube)
In Text Image 1: (Disney/Star Wars) (Andor | Inside Look at Narkina 5 | Disney+ – YouTube)
