In 2022, Disney released the first season of “Andor,” a mature, sci-fi spy-drama set in the “Star Wars” universe. For Season 1, Disney approved a $240 million budget, which paid off with the season’s impressive 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Disney approved a budget of about $355 million for the second season, and, due to incredible popularity, “Andor” Season 2 sports a 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite such popularity, there will not be another season of “Andor.”
The necessary ending of “Andor” highlights a radical break from Disney’s typical creative policy for “Star Wars.” All of Disney’s major live-action “Star Wars” television projects have traditionally been kept open for additional seasons. For “The Mandalorian,” Jon Favreau wrote three seasons and already wrote a fourth season that has yet to be produced, according to Time Magazine’s Megan McCluskey. The ending of “The Acolyte” suggested a continuation of the plot by leaving relatively unresolved issues, though the show would be canceled due to viewer dissatisfaction. Though Disney has not approved a second season for “The Book of Boba Fett,” lead actor Temuera Morrison has expressed that such an idea would not be impossible, leaving the show’s plot suspended above a definitive ending. Disney has already indicated that it will produce a second season of “Star Wars: Ahsoka,” but Forbes reports that the release will likely be delayed. Joby Herold wrote just one season of “Obi-Wan Kenobi” without the expectation of another season, but such an expectation could have merely been the result of a confusing transition of writers for the show. In all of these examples, except for perhaps “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” Disney and its writers intended to extend their writing for several seasons. Most find no surprise at such an effort by Disney, considering Disney has made sequels for most popular superheroes in the Marvel franchise. With “Andor,” however, Disney won’t have the option to keep churning out new seasons.
Season 2 of “Andor” ties into the end of the 2016 film “Rogue One.” A shot in the final moments of the season shows Saw Gerrera overlooking Jedha City, a combination of character and setting that viewers are intended to recognize from “Rogue One.” Cassian also departs Yavin with his droid, K-2SO, establishing them as the pair viewers know them to be in “Rogue One.” Tony Gilroy, Dan Gilroy, Stephen Schiff and Beau Willimon execute the transition from “Andor” to “Rogue One” so well that the viewer might feel inclined to believe that a two-season length was always the writers’ plan. Think again.
According to Esquire’s Brady Langmann, Tony Gilroy originally planned to write five seasons of “Andor” before ultimately deciding the project would fall apart unless he condensed the narrative into two seasons. Such a long project could never have reasonably fit into Disney’s production output. If a roughly equal amount of money and resources were put into the third, fourth, and fifth seasons, the budget for the entire show would have likely exceeded $1 billion. If “Andor” were to continue for several more seasons, Disney would have likely needed to cut its seasonal budget for “Andor” significantly. Because of how much money it cost Disney to produce “Andor,” consumers should not expect Disney to continue making “Star Wars” content that achieves such a high level of popularity, but no other “Star Wars” live-action show has achieved the popularity that “Andor” has. Hopefully, this reality will push Disney to keep pursuing quality content, rather than falling back on its sequel-fueled shortcut to riches.
Junior Charlie Burns is the Editorials Editor. His Email is cburns2408@gmail.com.