Andor Season 2 Brings Star Wars Fans Back To A Familiar Sequel Trilogy Location

Spoilers ahead for the second arc of "Andor" season 2.

During the dark times of the Empire, when the Alliance to Restore the Republic was nothing more than a dream of an idea, the rebels are little more than cockroaches scattered across hidden coverts in any nook and cranny they could find across the galaxy. Each disparate part finds a place to hide and sticks there as long as they can until they have to move on. 

Sometimes, these groups bubble up on their homeworlds, like we saw in the first season of "Andor" with Ferrix. "Star Wars: The Bad Batch" showed us Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) building a base on the planet Onderon as his partisans transition from fighting against the Separatists to fighting the oppression of the Empire from their hiding spots. In the second season of "Andor," we see some of the rebel elements move to other locations. In the first arc, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and his makeshift family—Bix (Adria Arjona), Brasso (Joplin Sibtain), Wilmon (Muhannad Bhaier), and B2EMO have moved to a planet called Mina-Rau. In "Star Wars Rebels" we saw the team establish bases on places like Atollon and Lothal, but with mixed results and always with the Empire close to finding them. They're always on the move.

Throughout the original "Star Wars" trilogy we saw two secret rebel hideouts: one on the moon of Yavin and the other on the ice world of Hoth. "Andor" season 2, however, reveals that one of the major Resistance bases from the sequel trilogy was also once used by the rebels as well.

The primary base of the Resistance in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and the start of "The Last Jedi" is on the planet D'Qar. It's a former Rebel base — much like Crait and Ajan Kloss, the other bases featured in the Skywalker Saga sequels. We've seen D'Qar quite a bit in the sequel trilogy era of the New Republic, in the films, comics and books, but it hasn't been seen much elsewhere. There were vague mentions of it being scouted by the rebels in the days after the Battle of Yavin and a small outpost was established there by the rebels, but nothing major.

General Leia Organa established it as a base for the Resistance after leaving the New Republic Senate to fight the First Order, as the remnants of the Galactic Empire made their back into power. The base was unique in that most of it was hidden underground and covered with dense foliage, making it difficult to detect the movement of ships and the massive bunkers that served there. Following the destruction of Starkiller Base, they were exposed and had to evacuate D'Qar before they were destroyed. It seemed like those events documented in Rian Johnson's masterpiece "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" would be the last time we would see D'Qar on the screen — until the most recent arc of "Andor."

I wasn't expecting to see D'Qar in the time before the Battle of Yavin because according to the lore, the Rebellion proper hadn't discovered it yet. But that doesn't preclude Saw Gerrera and his partisans from having found it, utilizing it, and abandoning it in the days before that momentous victory for the Rebellion. As we catch back up to Saw in this season of "Andor," he has posted his own band of rebels up on D'Qar and is training them there for chaos, destruction, and every chance they have to fight back against the evil of the Empire.

Since Saw Gerrera is so driven and so paranoid about his place in the galaxy, he isn't there for very long, but long enough for him to make an impact: stealing rhydonium and striking at the heart of the Empire from the safety of D'Qar. It's no wonder he didn't pass the knowledge of the base to other rebels.

It was so great to see such a familiar location back on "Andor," creating a direct visual tie between the classic trilogy and the sequel trilogy, building a continuity that further ties the entire history of "Star Wars" closer together, and rewarding long time fans with deeper connections.

New episodes of "Andor" release Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Disney+.