Everything We Know About Andor So Far

Remember when "A Star Wars Story" movies were going to be the next big thing? Lucasfilm seemed perfectly set up for the next decade of "Star Wars" storytelling after the one-two punch of "The Force Awakens" in 2015 and "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" in 2016, both of which grossed over $1 billion. Things ... didn't quite go as planned after that, as the rumors of behind-the-scenes troubles dominated the marketing for "Rogue One." The coup de grâce was finally delivered by the much-maligned "Solo: A Star Wars Story," whose financial underperformance, underwhelming critical reception, and even more public instances of creative differences actually led to Lucasfilm acknowledging the danger of "Star Wars fatigue" and the unofficial end of "A Star Wars Story" installments.

But that doesn't mean there's no hope for any characters or storylines related to "Rogue One." With the advent of the Disney+ streaming service, "Andor" has found new life as a spin-off/prequel series following Diego Luna's character from the movie, Cassian Andor. With the series still some months away, here's everything we currently know about "Andor."

We may not be privy to the entire picture of "Andor" just yet, but we do know that "Andor" will premiere on Disney+ for subscribers and the 12-episode series is tentatively scheduled for a release at some point in 2022. The timeline of the production schedule is at least rounding into shape, as star Diego Luna recently revealed that "Andor" has recently concluded filming. Post-production is likely well underway at this point and, provided there are no delays, a best guess of the premiere date would be sometime in the first or second quarter of 2022.

The events of "Rogue One" have sort of boxed "Andor" into a corner in terms of placement within the overarching "Star Wars" universe, as the events of the third act resulted in the entire main cast succumbing to nasty — but heroic! — deaths. With the prequel timeframe firmly established, we then learned that the series would take place five years before "Rogue One." As "Rogue One" itself led up to the very beginning moments of "Star Wars," this situates us in the very early stages of the nascent Rebellion and essentially the peak of the Empire's hold over the galaxy at large. At this time, Cassian was still a young operative taking very questionable measures to accomplish his goals, as seen in his initial appearances during "Rogue One." Though prequels by their nature aren't always considered to be full of storytelling potential (see: the "Star Wars" Prequel trilogy), there's certainly a lot of ground to cover in this little-seen period of the Star Wars universe. The first-look footage we've seen of "Andor" points towards Cassian Andor's efforts in the "building of a revolution," which further strengthens the idea of exploring the very early stages of the Rebellion.

As you might have guessed from the title, Diego Luna will be back to reprise his role as Cassian Andor. Luna has played coy about who else might be joining him in terms of recognizable characters, recently teasing the appearances of "familiar faces":

"You'll definitely see familiar faces. I can tell you about this project like no other because I can't spoil the ending if you've seen [Stars Wars: Rogue One] already. No matter what I say, I can't ruin the ending."

May we all be as conscientious about years-old spoilers as Diego Luna, honestly. In terms of the rest of the cast, we do know not to expect Alan Tudyk's K2SO ... although circumstances very easily could have changed since then. Known cast members will include Adria Arjona, Denise Gough, Robert Emms, Genevieve O'Reilly, Stellan Skarsgard, Fiona Shaw, and Kyle Soller. Tony Gilroy, who stepped in for a significant role during the production difficulties of "Rogue One," is returning to write and serve as showrunner for "Andor."