This morning Lucasfilm dropped our latest look at Andor‘s second and final season, with a tense examination of what price Rebels and Imperials alike are willing to play in the simmering Galactic Civil War. But while more broadly the trailer builds on a lot of what we’d already glimpsed in our first trailer for the season, it adds some interesting connective glue—while also raising some very interesting questions.
The Shadow of the Empire
A repeated image we see in this trailer is a glimpse of Imperial carriers and capital ships ominously hovering in the distance. It’s a great bit of imagery, and has a nice parallel to that moment we got in season one when Cinta saw the Star Destroyer come in over Aldhani after the heist, but it’s one that also really speaks to the added weight of the Imperial response to the growing resistance. Plus: in this shot in particular, it sure does look like Saw is entrenched on Jedha, watching a Star Destroyer loom over the city.
Love and vel
Season one’s war-torn sapphics haven’t made many appearances in what we’ve seen of season two so far, so it’s nice to see them, and see them together. It’s hard to say where this is, given the lighting, but it’s going to be interesting to see how the couple navigate the growing split between Mon Mothma’s side of the broader rebellion, and Saw Gerrera’s partisans. One tiny glimpse we got of Vel in the recent season two “special look” video from a few weeks ago saw her seemingly training gathered insurgents how to aim a blaster, at what looked a lot like the Massassi base on Yavin IV… and she was alone. Does Cinta not make it through season two (she was busy being elsewhere in time and space, perhaps), or do we maybe see an ideological split that sees her join Saw instead?
A Different Kind of Mission
We get a little more of Luthen and Cassian’s tense conversation here—the “think like a leader!” one we’ve seen bits of already. But what they’re talking about seems very interesting. “If it goes up in flames?” Cassian asks, of a “different kind of mission” Luthen has offered him.
“It will burn. Very brightly,” is Luthen’s response, which makes it seem like we’re finally going to see all those “terrible things” Cassian tells Jyn he did on behalf of the Rebellion in Rogue One. So far, what little we’ve seen of the season so far, Cassian’s doing things that are a bit more typically heroic—direct action against the Empire, stealing TIE Fighters, and so on. What could be so dangerous that it’s worth doing even if it goes to hell? Well… there was one fascinating shot of that aforementioned season two behind-the-scenes tease, where Cassian prepares a blaster rifle in a room that certainly looked like it fit with the environment we now know is Ghorman, ready to depict the canonical interpretation of the massacre that takes place there in 2BBY. Could a different kind of mission for Luthen, in this case, be firing the first shot in a massacre that the Empire builds on?
Kleya and the Road to Rogue One
We get a much more significant part of Luthen’s assistant Kleya here (again, very noted: we do not see them together at all), as she tells Cassian about a weapon the Empire’s building—presumably what is going to be the first time he hears information about the Death Star, given the pointed cut to a shot of Krennic watching the battle station get built immediately after.
The Monster That Comes for Us All
We fill in another important detail about the aftermath of the aforementioned Ghorman Massacre here—a lot of the shots of Mon in this trailer are of her in the Senate, delivering a barnstorming speech with tears in her eyes. Thisit seems is the speech she delivers decrying Palpatine for the Empire’s part in the slaughter on Ghorman, one that ultimately leads to her leaving the Senate… and, directly into the events of Star Wars Rebels‘ third season, where we see her flight from Coruscant take her to the orbit above Dantooine to deliver the formal declaration of a Rebel Alliance.
Choking on Your Aspirations
We’re not being given a lot of looks at Dedra this season so far, but this shot we get of her is setting off alarm bells in our heads. Of course Star Wars fans have been taught, more often than not, that an Imperial officer desperately clawing at their neck for seemingly no reason at all is to train us for a certain Dark Lord of the Sith to be somewhere near by, raising his hand in a choking motion. But does Andor seem like the kind of show that’s going to shoehorn in a Vader appearance to off Dedra? Probably not.
So why is Dedra having a panic attack and grabbing at her collar? Is it a lingering trauma from her experience on Ferrix? Has she, perhaps, witnessed something the Empire’s done that shakes even her resolve—and trying to literally physically tear away its grip around her neck?
Find’s Wedding
We’ll take more insight into Chandrilan culture any way we can get it, but at least this is an explicit confirmation that a lot of the stuff we saw with Mon in the first trailer is all connected around Leida’s traditional marriage to Davo Sculdun’s son Stekan. Will all this be worth it for Mon to shuffle her money around and fund the Alliance?
Andor returns to Disney+ for one final season beginning April 22.
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