Rogue One Villain Orson Krennic's Role In Andor Season 2, Explained

This article contains spoilers for "Andor" season 2, episode 1.

"Andor" season 2 brings the revolution back to "Star Wars," and to do so, it needs a formidable force of dictatorial bureaucracy to oppose. Fortunately, the series brings in the perfect guy for the job in the very first episode: Ben Mendelsohn's Director Orson Callan Krennic is back, and "Andor" will never be the same. 

From the very first moment the Imperial director begins his big meeting scene, it's clear that major season 1 antagonists Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) and Lio Partagaz (Anton Lesser) defer to him. Partagaz even later helpfully lampshades this, in case the viewer missed the many cues of how far lower in the pecking order the Imperial Security Bureau officer is compared to Krennic. 

"Star Wars" fans who remember "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" know what the fuss around the white-clad director is all about. However, the character's middle manager-like behavior is a far cry from the usual stern demeanor of the Empire's higher-ups, so newer viewers or those who haven't seen "Rogue One" might find themselves wondering just who this person is. Let's take a quick look back at who Director Krennic is and what his role in the grander scheme of "Andor" season 2 might be.

Krennic is ambitious Imperial director and a notable rival of Peter Cushing's Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin — though they don't share quite the same stature, since Tarkin is a military man and Krennic is an engineering specialist. The pair have been known to vie for power and influence within the Empire, which is an important enough plot point that, even though Cushing died in 1994, "Rogue One" brought Grand Moff Tarkin back to the big screen to interact with Krennic. While Tarkin is a considerably more ominous presence and ultimately outplays Krennic (above in "Rogue One), this still means that the white-clad director is powerful (or at least ambitious) enough to clash bureaucratic blades with a man who would go on to give orders to Darth Vader (David Prowse, voiced by James Earl Jones) in "Star Wars: A New Hope." 

Krennic leads the Imperial Military Department of Advanced Weapons Research, which — along with his personal contacts to the mega-weapon's key architect Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) — means that he's both the builder and initial commander of the first Death Star. This role proves to be his undoing in "Rogue One," but since "Andor" season 2 takes place well before his downfall, his power is firmly on the rise ... and as such, he may turn out to be even more dangerous than he is in the 2016 film. 

"Rogue One" originally had a different, kinder ending, but the one they ended up using has Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and his team sacrificing their lives to get the Death Star plans to the rebellion and thus jump-start the events of "A New Hope." In the process, Krennic also loses his life from a direct blast of the Death Star's superlaser. 

The Krennic we see in "Andor" season 2, episode 1 is a powerful man. As mentioned, his might is imposing enough for the likes of Partagaz to freely admit inferiority. Assuming that Krennic's comment about discussing matters directly with the Emperor wasn't just a flex to make him look better, the director is currently one of the very few people in the galaxy who have Palpatine's ear. 

While it's still too early to say precisely what his function will be on the show, we do know that Krennic is the direct source of much of the misery we've seen so far. The hellish, borderline inescapable prison system in "Andor" season 1 was set up to build parts for his Death Star, and planet Ghorman's planned plights take place under his purview. This suggests that the show is already setting him up as the freedom-minded Cassian Andor's imperial nemesis, even though the pair aren't aware of each other this early in the game.  

Since we know that he survives the events of the show and is unlikely to be a particularly hands-on Big Bad here, Krennic's main function on the show is likely to represent the Empire's soul-numbing bureaucracy, and to give a face to the show's most immediate political and social threat to whatever planets tickle his Death Star-building fancy. At the end of the day, Krennic is a punch-clock villain who commands and supervises evil deeds because it fits his career plans — and such a threat is far more fitting for a show like "Andor" than a lightsaber-waving space wizard.