Star Wars TV shows have commanded impressive budgets, with a single season of The Mandalorian costing $120 million. Lucasfilm's stated goal was to make TV shows at the same quality level as the movies, which explains the budgets.

Andor's budget, it seems, is higher than anyone guessed. According to tax returns submitted in the U.K. (via cancelation of The Acolyte, which had a budget of $230.1 million. What's going on?

Andor's Budget Makes It The Most Expensive Star Wars Story Ever

There's never been anything to compare to Andor in cost

Andor's mammoth budget means each episode of the two-season show has an average cost of $26.9 million. This makes it one of the most expensive TV shows ever made, rivaled only by the likes of Stranger Things season 4, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and WandaVision. The sheer scale of Andor's cost is illustrated by comparing it to other Star Wars stories.

Andor Had Low Viewership... But Two Big Plus Factors

Why did Disney sign off on this kind of a budget?

These figures are staggering, and they naturally raise a simple question: why did Disney green-light this kind of a budget, and was it the right decision? It's worth noting that Andor season 2's budget was signed off at a very different time, before the House of Mouse began its current pivot back toward the big screen. Lucasfilm will certainly be struggling to get approval for anything like this kind of TV show budget now.

There's evidence Andor's viewership was initially comparatively low. That said, it received popular and critical acclaim, and it's known to have continued performing consistently. According to Jimmy Doyle, Director and Film & TV analyst at Luminate, "Andor is one of the best holding Star Wars shows as we go later on, so people kept discovering the show well after its initial release." The show's reputation has only improved with time, meaning next year's Andor season 2 is expected to be one of 2025's biggest hits.

The Acolyte Had Low Viewership, & Failed To Perform In The Long Term

One of Star Wars' biggest disappointments in recent years

How does this compare to The Acolyte, another high-budget, low-viewership TV show - one that was canceled in part because of how expensive it was to make? For all there's a push among the fandom to bring The Acolyte back, the sad truth is that it performed poorly - both in the short and longer-term. A review-bombing campaign directed against The Acolyte damaged the show's reputation, and word-of-mouth hasn't really helped give it a chance to recover.

"The Acolyte... had lower viewership than most of the other Star Wars shows when it premiered, and then it didn't gain viewership," Doyle told us. "It actually lost a little bit of viewership during its run. So with that loss of viewership, in addition to the critical reception to the show, those two things kind of lead you to that cancelation." This is the hard truth of modern television; if a show isn't performing, it will be cut.

Disney Need To Get Show Budgets Under Control, Urgently

This approach just isn't sustainable

Disney will likely consider Andor season 2 a worthwhile investment; the show's growing reputation means viewership next year should be through the roof. For all that's the case, though, there's no way this kind of budget is sustainable. There have been recent reports that Lucasfilm is cutting back, both on the number of shows in the works, and on their costs. This is surely sensible.

Looking back at the history of Star Wars, the truly remarkable thing about George Lucas is that he managed to keep budgets under control. Even the prequel trilogy are surprisingly low, especially given the use of then-cutting-edge CGI. Modern Lucasfilm has lost the ability to do that, meaning costs have spiraled. Behind-the-scenes drama has often made matters even worse, as in the case of the movies Rogue One and Solo.

Hopefully, Andor marks the high-water-mark for the various Disney+ Star Wars TV shows. Only one further live-action production is known to be in the works right now, Ahsoka season 2. Although there are reports this will involve more location filming, meaning the budget is likely to be higher going forward, it shouldn't come anywhere near Andor's mammoth costs. No doubt Lucasfilm will now focus on keeping budgets considerably lower, while hopefully not sacrificing quality; the costs have paid off with Andor, but that is likely to be the exception rather than the rule.