'Andor' Gets Season 2 Premiere Date; Surprise Retitling
The 'Star Wars' Disney+ series starring Diego Luna had a major showcase at D23 Brazil Saturday
Just three months after holding D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event in Anaheim this past August, Disney has brought a D23 event to Brazil. It’s called D23 Brazil: A Disney Experience, the first international edition that isn’t held in Japan. While it’s not ultimate enough to carry a ton of big reveals, there were still some to be found. One however, had the rug pulled out from under it by Disney’s own streaming service, Disney+.
Season 2 of Andor, the concluding season of the Star Wars series featuring Diego Luna reprising his role as Cassian Andor from Rogue One, had its April 22 premiere revealed on the streamer’s carousel at the top of the page before the panel Saturday. It means it will have been 29 months since the first season ended on November 23, 2022, a gap prolonged by the work stoppage necessitated by SAG-AFTRA’s striking pursuit of a better contract last July. It’s a Tuesday, specifically the Tuesday after the next Star Wars Celebration happening from April 18 to 20, which happens to be in Tokyo, Japan meaning the event will likely be its last pre-premiere promotional push.
Not only is April 22 a Tuesday, but it is 7 weeks after the premiere of Daredevil: Born Again, which has a nine-episode first season premiering on March 4. It has been a long while since the prestige Marvel and Star Wars series have had overlap, with the shift to be more spread out and not churn out too much. It starts to give some idea of how Daredevil will roll out, especially after Agatha All Along opened with two episodes, closed with two, and had seven singles inbetween, fitting its nine episodes over seven weeks, though doubling up on finale week wasn’t known until partway into the run. By the same note, Ironheart, the Marvel Studios series to premiere next, does so on June 24, which is nine weeks after the premiere of Andor. One may recall that season one premiered with three episodes at once before going weekly, so it wouldn’t be a stranger to bundling episode releases should Disney+ not seek overlap in its show releases.
It also turns out Andor’s full name isn’t Star Wars: Andor, at least not anymore. To many’s surprise, Andor now bears the subtitle of the film it will directly lead into, fully named as Andor: A Star Wars Story. The second season has long been known to span the final four years before Rogue One, with each three-episode pod spanning those years, but apparently just several-day stretches in those years. As Luna had previously put it, Cassian “grows into the hero we see make the ultimate sacrifice”, already broken out of an Imperial prison cell at sea, stirring up what will become the Rebellion. Back at the Anaheim event, a behind-the-scenes reel confirmed Ben Mendelsohn had joined the cast, reprising his role as Orson Krennic. It is a cast that also includes returnees Stellan Skarsgård, Genevieve O’Reilly, Kyle Soller, Adria Arjona, Denise Gough, Faye Marsay and Varada Sethu. Luna stated in the clip that the “stakes are greater” in the new season. At last year’s Star Wars Celebration, creator and executive producer Tony Gilroy, who co-wrote Rogue One, said “If you know your ending, it really helps. We know exactly where we’re going. You know what you have to deliver emotionally and what the story has to do. It’s a decision borne of survival, but it’s good for us creatively.”
Sources: ScreenRant, Deadline, Variety