Andor Episode 4 Name Drops A Planet That May Hint At A Certain Space Station's Construction

There will be major spoilers for "Andor" Episode 4.

There are a lot of planets name dropped in this new episode of "Andor." From future capital of the galaxy Hosnian Prime to Jason Fry's Eufornis Major, one planet stands above them as a clue to a story playing out in parallel in the background of "Andor." That planet is none other than Scarif, the site of Cassian Andor's eventual heist of the Death Star plans in"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story."

Scarif is a tropical world home to the Imperial Archives and Citadel tower and looks like it would be a dream vacation for most. Much of it was leveled when Grand Moff Tarkin ordered a single reactor ignition blast on the planet in order to prevent the loss of the Death Star plans. Thankfully for the Rebels, that plan didn't work, but the Death Star had a much longer history at Scarif than that one moment.

In the Imperial Security Bureau briefing, it's mentioned that they're tracking a massive shipment of construction materials headed toward Scarif. At this point in the timeline, the Death Star is under construction there at Scarif, and those materials are likely destined for the Emperor's super weapon. 

According to the books that give background on the construction of the Death Star in the canon, James Luceno's "Tarkin" and "Catalyst", the Death Star project was moved from Geonosis to Scarif in a bid to keep it secret. Throughout those books and others, like John Jackson Miller's "A New Dawn," we learn that the Death Star is held in the highest secrecy and no one quite knows what all of those construction materials are for, though they're all trying to find out. There's a "Game of Thrones" level game of politics going on to jockey for the Emperor's favor on projects and the ISB is no stranger to trying to pry the Empire's secrets from itself as well as anyone else. The TIE Defender project, dramatized on "Star Wars Rebels" and in the Thrawn books by Timothy Zahn, is another example of a great parallel effort in this regard.

As for Scarif, the Death Star was right there, ready to receive those construction materials and continue on its path to ultimate destruction. If you want more background about what's going on there and with the two chief architects of the Death Star and what's going on at Scarif, read James Luceno's "Tarkin" and "Catalyst", as both help paint that picture in the best ways.

New episodes of "Andor" premiere on Wednesdays on Disney+.