He's taking us to - Quiet!
And there's a fresh one if you mouth off again.
So it feels a bit premature to be making this video when we’re less than halfway through
Andor’s first season, but from what I have seen so far this series is already an absolute
game-changer for Star Wars in the age of Disney+.
It’s no secret that I’ve been less than impressed with the Star Wars shows lately
– to the extent I turned two of them into movies just to give the stories a semblance
of pacing and structure.
But this isn’t a video about the problems I have with modern Star Wars, it’s about
why I think Andor offers a new hope for the franchise.
And the key word here, is new.
Everything about Andor feels new, and different.
Take, for example the antagonist – Syril Karn.
In just a few episodes, he has already established himself as one of the most compelling villains
Star Wars has ever seen.
See, Star Wars villains tend to be pretty black and white – literally.
That’s not to say they are bad – far from it – but with only a couple of very noteworthy
exceptions where some character nuance is explored as part of the wider story, the villains
in Star Wars tend to be evil because they are evil.
Now don’t get me wrong, for the most part that is fine, but if you want your story to
explore a moral grey area then you can’t have a black and white villain.
Which is why Karn is different.
Karn is not evil, and he’s not even very powerful.
He doesn’t have a darksabre or a black cape or even much of a title.
Unlike these people who exist at the highest tiers within the Empire, he’s just a mid-level
cop; an ambitious but probably naïve kid who has drunk the cool-aid of the Empire’s
propaganda and is determined to prove himself and uphold law and order.
These are noble goals – if you agree with the Empire’s point of view, that is.
So what makes Karn different is that he genuinely believes that he is on a righteous quest to
stop a criminal before he kills again.
From his point of view, he’s the good guy.
And that makes him dangerous.
You might argue Anakin feels the same way in Revenge of the Sith.
But the difference here is that Karn isn’t about to go and murder a bunch of younglings.
Because Karn has a code, a belief in rules and order.
He would be horrified by Anakin doing something like this, in the same way he is horrified
by his boss ordering him to not investigate the murder and just sweep it under the carpet.
He cannot and will not accept this because it goes against everything he believes the
Empire stands for.
So he goes after Cassian anyway, and quickly finds himself out of his depth.
But we immediately see his vulnerabilities, his insecurities.
We see fear in him when he’s faced with combat – how many other Star Wars villains
can you say that about?
Instead of a rage-filled, power-hungry villain wielding a lightsabre, Karn is just this kid
who believes that if he toes the line and follows orders then everything will be OK.
He’s not prepared for the real world when he’s told the Empire doesn’t care about
the murders, and he’s not prepared for the real world when he lands on Ferrix and finds
the locals protesting his authority, or the rebels killing his men in order to evade it.
And that just hardens his resolve.
And it makes him absolutely terrifying, because we have never seen a villain like this before
in Star Wars.
But while Soller’s portrayal of Syril Karn is an obvious highlight, Andor has more going
for it than just its villain.
I could talk about the phenomenal acting from pretty much everyone we’ve seen so far,
but let’s move on to how the show looks.
This was the first Disney+ show not filmed using Stagecraft digital backdrops, also known
as The Volume, and oh my god does it make a difference.
Now, let me be clear that I’m not criticising the Volume here, like any filmmaking technology
it isn’t the tech but how it’s used.
The Batman was mostly filmed in The Volume, and it’s one of the best looking films of
the year.
But Andor was filmed on location in real landscapes, as well as real, detailed sets that just give
the entire show more depth and scope, and right from the start it immediately stands
out from the other Star Wars shows.
The world feels lived in and tactile.
Andor is following in the footsteps of the original Star Wars movies by using real-life
locations to bring authenticity to the alien worlds of the galaxy.
Whether it’s the muddy, windswept wilderness of Aldahni, the grimy brick-lined streets
of Ferrix or the brutalist, bureaucratic architecture of Coruscant, every single location and setting
is dripping with character and authenticity.
But overall I think the thing I like most about Andor is that it draws its inspiration
from Rogue One more than any other Star Wars property.
Now this might sound obvious – of course it does, it’s a Rogue One prequel and its
being led by Tony Gilroy, the co-writer of that movie.
But here me out because the similarities aren’t surface level.
It’s not about the settings, or the shared characters, or even the fact it’s shaping
up to be a heist story.
No, it’s the entire mindset of the showrunners, and the fact that this show has clearly had
a completely different approach from the start.
See, the original Star Wars was famously inspired by the aesthetics and styles of samurai films,
historical epics, dogfighting movies and science fiction classics.
So it created this brand new and exciting thing by using familiar genre conventions
to tell a completely new story set in an alien galaxy far far away.
Star Wars in the Disney era is by and large inspired by Star Wars.
So you end up in this spiral of references and easter eggs that increasingly alienate
casual fans and especially new audiences.
Rogue One bucked that trend by using film-making and storytelling techniques from war films
and spy thrillers, and didn’t feel restricted by trying to copy other Star Wars movies.
Instead of trying to make a Star Wars movie, they made a war movie that happened to take
place in the Star Wars universe.
This brand new style, combined with the cast of almost entirely new characters, gave the
film a completely unique feeling and tone, and delivered us some of the best moments
Star Wars has ever seen.
Andor follows firmly in those footsteps, and unlike it’s companion shows on Disney+ it
shuns the temptation to get too deep into Star Wars lore and instead tells a new story
about new characters, and it does it on a planet that’s not Tatooine.
On a thematic level as well, Andor doesn’t just have the good guys and the bad, but it
explores the internal tensions within these otherwise monolithic organisations in a way
that exposes the human side of the galaxy.
The Last Jedi tried to do this, but personally I found the two scenes with Genevieve O'Reilly’s
Mon Mothma to be a better commentary on the lives of the galaxy’s wealthy elite than
the whole sequence on Canto Bight.
I can’t wait to see more of her as the series goes on.
And that series is, most importantly, a story that was made for TV from the start.
A 12-episode run over its first season that, if the first few episodes are anything to
go by, show a clear, narrative progression and are paced for serialised storytelling.
They’re not padded full of filler, or artificially stretched out from a movie to a TV show – no,
they’re properly crafted and structured episodes of TV.
Plus the directors behind each episode all have very well-established linear TV backgrounds,
meaning they understand the fact that each episode needs to work as a story by itself,
while also serving a larger whole.
The creator of The Boys said something recently that was doing the rounds on Twitter that
I think really hit the nail on the head when it comes to a lot of streaming shows.
He said The downside of streaming is that a lot of
filmmakers who work in streaming didn’t necessarily come out of that network grind.
[…] As a network guy who had to get you people interested for 22 f*****g hours a year,
I didn’t get the benefit of, ‘Oh, just hang in there and don’t worry.
The critics will tell you that by episode eight, sh*t really hits the fan.’
Or anyone who says, ‘Well, what I’m really making is a ten-hour movie.’
F**k you!
No, you’re not!
Make a TV show."
So far, Andor has stood head and shoulders above the other Disney+ Star Wars shows in
terms of its structure and storytelling because it understands the difference between a TV
show and a ten hour movie.
Every episode has a clear arc, and builds naturally towards the next one.
It is squarely focused on the protagonist and the antagonist, and introduces supporting
characters and themes gradually in way that adds new and interesting layers to the plot.
I am really excited for the rest of this series, and I really hope that it marks a turning
point in the timeline of Star Wars.
Rogue One could have been that turning point, but Solo flopped and although The Last Jedi
tried to do something new it ended up splitting the fan base like a hand from a Skywalker,
and so Lucasfilm decided to go with the safe option of re-hashing the familiar instead
of risking something new.
I think that was the wrong decision and I think, I hope, Andor is the first step onto
the path of correcting that.
Because Star Wars needs to grow.
Not every story needs to be tied to the Skywalkers.
Not every story needs to reference the familiar, and not every story needs to take place on
Tatooine or its clone.
I want brand new Star Wars stories that take full advantage of the vastness of this galaxy
and the billions of people and stories that inhabit it.
I want Star Wars stories that take me to new planets.
I want new, complex villains that don’t fall into the typical mould of a black cape
wearing Sith, and I want new heroes that have some moral complexity and emotional depth
to their character.
And above all, I want Star Wars to give me that same sense of unexpected wonder that
made it such a cultural phenomenon in the first place.
It’s not going to do that by playing its greatest hits on repeat.
It needs to take risks and do something different and new.
In 2016 Rogue One gave me hope that it would be the new template for Star Wars stories.
Seeing what happened since, I thought it might be the last hope.
But now, there is another.
So with over half the season still left to run, all I can say to Andor is that I will
watch your career with great interest.