The first season of Andor has wrapped up, and filming on season two is underway. With that in mind, and with the thrilling finish of a fantastic season one, fans may be wondering what lies ahead for the Disney+ series.
We don’t know a ton about it, but I’ve compiled some of the big takeaways that we do know about season two, such as when to expect it and what to expect from it.
When will it air?
We still don’t have a release date for the second season, but it just begun production on November 21, 2022. Filming will wrap in August of 2023, and showrunner Tony Gilroy expects it to follow a similar timeframe as season one, coming out two years after it began production. If that is the case, we can expect season two to come out in the fall of 2024.
Will season two pick up right after season one?
No. There will be a time jump of one year in-between the finale of season one and the premiere of season two. The first season ended with Cassian giving Luthen a choice: either kill him or welcome him in. Season two won’t directly pick up on that – although we know what choice he makes – and will instead show us Cassian entrenched in this life. “It’ll be a year later after what you just saw,” Gilroy told Collider. “[A] great deal has happened in the interim.”
Will the show’s structure be the same?
Yes and no. The second series will once again include 12 episodes, with the season broken into three-episode arcs. But the second season will span a much longer period of time. The beginning of season one tells us that it takes place in 5 BBY, and the first season spans a year. The second season will span the remaining four years leading up to Rogue One. The way it will happen is that each arc will take place over a period of just a few days, but it will then jump ahead a year to the next arc. “They are actually super condensed,” Tony Gilroy told The Hollywood Reporter about each arc. “They’re like three days, four days, two weeks, four days. They’re really tight. It’s cool that way. That’s what’s exciting about it. You can go away for a year, come back for Friday, Saturday and Sunday and then jump a year. So they won’t be spread out. It won’t be like block two takes place over another year. So they’re very concentrated, which is fun. And then you have to account for all the negative space and what happened in the interim.”
What will season two be about?
Whereas the first season of Andor was about seeing Cassian embrace the rebellion, the second season will see him as a rebel – Gilroy told Slashfilm that “his commitment to the cause is not going to be that much in doubt over the next four years,” which is a difference about season two. He further elaborated on what the season will be about:
“The show still is about becoming, and it’s about people, or as you say, ordinary people making extremely difficult decisions under extreme circumstances. That won’t change. But it’s really more about thematically how the Rebellion will come together, and the difficulties of the Rebellion coming together. We know it’s going to end up with the Alliance in Yavin. Well, that’s not a very easy process. Revolutions are typically formed by all kinds of factions, and all kinds of attitudes. And what happens to the original gangsters along the way? What happens to the outliers? What happens to the people who play it too safe? It’s going to be about the revolution coming together, and the Alliance coming together, and the way that Cassian himself had to come together on the first half.”
Gilroy mentioned Yavin, and he has also confirmed that the show will take us to Yavin 4 in season two. He also called including K-2SO “one of the responsibilities” of season two.
How will season two end?
Since Andor is a prequel series we already know where the storyline ends up, but we also know the final scene of the series. Gilroy has discussed how this ending is not a secret and will lead directly into the beginning of Rogue One: “Yeah, I mean, our final scene of the show is no secret; it’s going to be [Cassian] walking across the tarmac to get in the ship to go to the Rings of Kafrene to go meet, Daniel Mays’ [character], he’s going there.” Mays played Tivik in Rogue One, a spy who contacts Cassian and meets with him on the Ring of Kafrene, informing him that the Empire is building a planet-killer. That sets in motion the rebels’ desperate attempts to discover what it is and how to destroy it that lead us into the original trilogy.
Will there be a third season?
No. Though there were reports of initial plans for five seasons, it was announced at Star Wars Celebration 2022 that it will just be two – which is the reason for season two spanning four years. The reasoning lies in the fact that Tony Gilroy thought they could speed up the story a bit and did not want to get into making five seasons that would take up at least a decade of his life. Instead, they settled for two seasons, deciding to tell the story they want and then be satisfied to conclude it there.
Who are the directors on season two?
Interestingly, none of the three directors on season one are returning for season two due to scheduling conflicts. Instead, the episodes will be directed by Ariel Kleiman (six episodes), Janus Metz (three episodes), and Alonso Ruizpalacios (three episodes). All three are newcomers to the Star Wars franchise.
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