The writer for the the formation of the Rebel Alliance, but it digs deeper into the evils of the Empire and the oppressive regimes it emulates than the franchise ever has before.

Though Andor is set during one of the most crucial periods in the galaxy’s history, one of the show’s most notable – and commendable – traits is the lack of overt references to other major Star Wars stories set during the same timeframe. Andor’s writers were seemingly very selective about what parts of Star Wars’ lore they needed to draw from, whether to keep canon consistent (enough) or to move the story forward, and one of season 2’s writers recently explained why.

Andor's Writer Explains The Philosophy That Makes This Show So Good

The trouble with writing for an existing IP, especially one as widely and sometimes fanatically beloved as Star Wars, is the lure of the franchise’s existing mythology. Star Wars is chock-full of iconic characters, locations, species, set designs, weapons, and more. How do you differentiate between the pieces of lore that will elevate your story and the previously established world-building that will burden it unnecessarily?

Backstory Magazine’s bring Andor’s narrative straight into Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as Cassian Andor leaves for Kafrene, where one of the movie’s opening scenes takes place. During the Q&A, Bissell revealed the most important advice he learned from Andor’s showrunner, Tony Gilroy.

"I'll just bring it to something that Tony said to me when we were starting on this, on season 2. I can't say it was anything I'd ever put into words as well as he did. But it was kind of a principle that I'd maybe been subconsciously aware of, going through my time writing for Uncharted, Gears of War, Battlefield, or any of these games.

Tony said something I thought was really great. He said, 'A lot of times when you're working on IP storytelling, your impulse is to open the toybox and start playing with all the toys.' And he said, 'But you should try to resist that, and what you should do is leave more toys in the toybox than were there when you got there.' And resisting the impulse to be a child and instead think more like a storyteller who's adding to the world rather than taking from it.'

When I think of just the collage of new ideas and materials and planets and concepts that these two seasons have injected into Star Wars, I can't think of a stronger endorsement for that approach to working on IP storytelling."

"If your primary goal is to make fans happy, you're gonna be in trouble real quick."

With the final three episodes of Andor season 2 so closely connected to Rogue One and thus, by extension, the original Star Wars movie (later retitled A New Hope), there were plenty of opportunities to include references to other Rebellion-era stories – but they didn’t. That final montage, focusing primarily on characters introduced within Andor or directly related to Cassian’s story, was a conscious choice, and it makes these episodes and the overall show much stronger.

Star Wars Normally Takes The Opposite Approach

Disney's Star Wars has been continuously accused of overreliance on nostalgia. Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ most basic plot was a retread of A New Hope. What was the point of a Han Solo origin story? Why is Tatooine constantly forced into the narrative? These are questions many fans have asked themselves over the years. Some decisions work well, others don’t. Andor’s approach offers an interesting contrast to other recent Star Wars stories. It’s a balancing act, and that balance can be difficult to find.

Gilroy and Bissell’s toybox analogy is particularly intriguing, as two other major Star Wars creators, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, have been known to use that same analogy in the past, though in very different contexts. Rather than actively avoiding the existing toybox as much as possible, as Gilroy and Co. seem to have done, Filoni and Favreau have combined their Star Wars toybox, pulled out the characters, scenes, and ideas they love the most, and created new stories around those so-called “toys.”

There’s nothing inherently wrong with that kind of writing process, so long as the right balance can be found. We know both Filoni and Favreau are talented storytellers. Filoni worked wonders with Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, providing necessary and beautiful context to the Star Wars prequel trilogy, the Rebel Alliance’s history, and the Empire’s reign, long before Andor came along.

At what point does the timeline become overly convoluted because there are simply too many toys involved?

I also wholeheartedly believe the first season of The Mandalorian became so wonderfully popular because it genuinely hit that perfect balance of “pure Star Wars” and new, original ideas. The Mandalorian took the previously established lore of Mandalorian culture from Star Wars Legends and The Clone Wars and gave it a fresh, exciting twist, one that was accessible to both old and new fans alike.

None of the other well-known Star Wars elements involved in The Mandalorian season 1, and even most of season 2, overwhelmed the series’ core relationship. Those elements added to Din Djarin and Grogu’s story, but didn’t overshadow them. However, once legacy characters like Ahsoka Tano, Boba Fett, Bo-Katan Kryze, and Luke Skywalker became involved, could we still honestly say that The Mandalorian and the overarching “Mandoverse” franchise kept that all-important narrative balance? Is The Mandalorian still Din and Grogu’s story? At what point does the timeline become overly convoluted because there are simply too many toys involved?

Star Wars Needs To Learn An Important Lesson From Andor

Star Wars is beloved for a reason, and nostalgia remains a powerful narrative tool because people love to sink back into what is familiar and comforting. Bringing animated characters to live-action is perfectly valid if there’s a purpose in the story for them, and there’s nothing wrong with occasionally returning to well-known settings, either. Even so, every choice should be made in service of the story and the characters of that particular narrative. It doesn’t always have to be about the bigger picture, even in a franchise as sprawling as Star Wars.

Andor is the perfect example of an impactful Star Wars story that still managed to remain small. We know, for instance, that Emperor Palpatine is out there; we know Darth Vader is terrorizing the galaxy. We don’t need to see or hear about them constantly, and the Andor writers understood that. It was so much more powerful to hear Mon Mothma call out Emperor Palpatine for the Ghorman Massacre without seeing his reaction, because, in that moment, his reaction didn’t matter. What mattered was the impact her words had on the galaxy at large.

If the franchise wants to survive, it has to introduce new lore. Star Wars can only continue to thrive if it continues to build.

With Star Wars returning to the cinema, I hope the franchise learns from Andor’s approach. Yes, the Star Wars galaxy is already vast, and there’s so much existing lore to play around with. However, if the franchise wants to survive, it has to introduce new lore. Star Wars can only continue to thrive if it continues to build. Andor’s use of new planets, new cultures, new tech, and new characters delicately mixed with the old is the way forward.

Source: Backstory Magazine on YouTube

All episodes of Andor are now available to stream exclusively on Disney+.