Andor season 2: everything we know about the hit Star Wars show’s return

Andor season 2 feels a long way off at this point. Thanks to last year’s Hollywood strikes, the acclaimed Star Wars show isn’t expected to debut on Disney Plus until 2025, so we’ve got a long wait on our hands until it graces our screens once more.

But hope springs eternal, dear reader, if the form of Star Wars Day 2024. Indeed, with May 4 right around the corner, we might – and it’s a long shot, admittedly – get some form of Andor-based update as part of this year’s festivities. We aren’t holding our breath for one, but you never know what Lucasfilm has up its sleeve.

If we don’t learn anything new about the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story prequel series, though, there’s still plenty for you to read in this guide, including information on its potential launch date, expected cast, and plot details. If you haven’t watched the first season yet, you’ll want to do so because full Andor season 1 spoilers follow. Be sure to read our Andor season 1 review first, too, before you stream it on Disney Plus.

Andor season 2 release date: what we know

Andor‘s second and last installment doesn’t have a release date yet. The only official information we have is that it isn’t being released this year. Indeed, Andor season 2 isn’t part of Disney Plus’ 2024 line-up, so it isn’t expected to arrive until early 2025. That’s largely down to last year’s writers and actors strikes, which shut down Hollywood for much of 2023.

Thankfully, though, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Principal photography wrapped in February, with lead actor Diego Luna taking to Instagram post-shoot to thank those involved with its development.

There’s plenty of post-production work to carry out now, so we still don’t think Andor will return until next year. Mind you, if enough visual effects (VFX) work was completed during the 2023 Hollywood strikes – on scenes that were filmed prior to said industrial action – then post-production might be further along than expected.

For what it’s worth, Stellan Skarsgård, who plays Luthen Rael in Andor, told GamesRader/Total Film that he expects season 2 to “be out towards the end of the year or early next”. The latter still seems more likely to us, especially with another Star Wars series – Star Wars: Skeleton Crew – reportedly eyeing a late 2024 release itself.

Andor season 2 cast: confirmed and rumored

Spoilers follow for Andor‘s first season.

Here’s who we expect to return in Andor season 2: 

• Diego Luna as Cassian Andor
• Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma
• Stellan Skarsgård as Luthen Rael
• Denise Gough as Dedra Meero
• Kyle Soller as Syril Karn
• Adria Arjona as Bix Caleen
• Faye Marsay as Vel Sartha
• Varada Sethu as Cinta Kaz
• Elizabeth Dulau as Kleya Marki
• Anton Lesser as Major Partagaz
• Duncan Pow as Ruescott Melshi

Speaking to Empire, Andy Serkis also hinted – or, more accurately, didn’t deny – that his season 1 character Kino Loy will live to fight another day. Chatting to SlashFilm, Gilroy also teased “we didn’t see him die”, so Kino may still be alive.

As for newcomers, Lucasfilm is yet to announce any new stars, though Spanish site Levante (thanks to StarWarsNewsNet for the find) did spot Benjamin Bratt (Poker Face) when filming took place in València. This has led fans to assume he’s bagged himself a role in outer space.

Andor hasn’t gone particularly big on cameos from legacy Star Wars characters, either, but its first outing contained appearances from characters we’ve seen in other projects. For one, we already know Rogue One soldier Ruescott Melshi is back, with Gilroy confirming as much to Deadline. Imperial bigwig Wullf Yularen (Malcolm Sinclair), who dates all the way back to Episode IV: A New Hope, and extremist Rebel Saw Gerrera (played by Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker) also featured in season 1, so we also expect this duo to return.

We wouldn’t be surprised if they’re joined by more familiar faces from Rogue One, too. Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), an Empire pilot who defects to the Rebellion and Tivik (Daniel Mays), the Rebel spy Cassian kills early on in Rogue One, could both cross paths with the nascent Rebel Alliance. Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) is also presumably hard at work on the Death Star – the legendary battle station Andor and his fellow inmates unwittingly helped to build during their imprisonment on Narkina 5.

We’d be amazed if K-2SO – the Imperial security droid who’s Cassian’s mechanical BFF in Rogue One – doesn’t finally show up as well. Speaking to Collider, Gilroy seemingly confirmed K-2SO would appear, calling the android’s first meeting with Cassian “one of the responsibilities of part 2”.

As for other potential actor appearances, Gilroy told SlashFilm: “We have some things we have to do and some people we have to meet”, so expect other notable faces to pop up over the next 12 episodes. Speaking of which…

Star Wars: Andor season 2 plot speculation

While season 1 mapped out 12 months in Cassian Andor’s life, Andor season 2 is spread across the four years leading up to Rogue One. 

The 12-episode season will be split into four installments, comprising three episodes apiece, that each depict a 12-month period covering a pivotal few days of the Star Wars timeline (check out our guide to how to watch the Star Wars movies in order for more on where it’ll be set). Gilroy also revealed to Collider that “a great deal has happened in the interim [between season 1’s finale and the start of season 2]”, so expect some plot exposition to be laid out in season 2’s opening episode.

“When we come back, it’ll be literally like a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday,” Gilroy told Deadline. “And then, we’ll jump a year, and then it’ll be, like, four or five days, and then we’ll jump a year, and then there’ll be another four or five days, and then we jump a year, and be another four or five days. Our last block is the last three days before Rogue One. So, the last shot will be walking into Rogue One. So, you can imagine that we have to do a lot of interlacing at the end, with the [Star Wars] calendar.”

We know, then, the beginning and end of Andor season 2 – but everything in between remains something of a mystery. Well, aside from other tidbits that Gilroy, Luna, and other individuals have teased.

For starters, Gilroy told the Writer Guild of America East (see the X/Twitter post above) that he doesn’t think he’s done “anything as important” or “big before” as the show’s sophomore outing. Considering the size and scope of its predecessor, it sounds like season 2 will be even more impressive from narrative, visual, thematic perspectives.

“The beauty of this show is that even though sometimes you know what’s going to happen, it hits you as though you’re learning it for the first time,” star Diego Luna further elaborated in a discussion with Entertainment Weekly (EW). “You are witnessing this from the inside, from the personal perspective. You get to live it with the characters, or through the characters. Therefore, it hits you differently. It’s not about the events, necessarily, but about the choices made and the risks these characters are taking. It’s because you know them that you care like you didn’t care before.”

So, what did the season 1 finale set up for its successor? (Full spoilers follow for Andor season 1 after the tweet below!).

In the season 1 finale, Cassian Andor briefly returned to his home planet Ferrix for the funeral of his adoptive mother Maarva. After she posthumously incited an anti-Imperial riot (via a recorded hologram), he managed to rescue ex-girlfriend Bix Caleen from Imperial torture and convince morally flexible Rebel Alliance kingpin Luthen Rael not to kill him. Now that the previously ambivalent Cassian has a reason to take the fight to the Empire, it looks like he’ll be a fully fledged member of the Alliance next time we see him.

“Cassian’s commitment to the cause is not in doubt,” Gilroy explained to Polygon. “If it was about him becoming a revolutionary, then the second half is about him becoming a leader.”

Although her name isn’t in the title, Andor was as much about Mon Mothma as its eponymous antihero. In season 2, the character has to evolve from a respected senator helping fund the Rebels on the sly, to the leader we see making pivotal decisions on Yavin IV in Rogue One. So, you can expect her character to evolve further in the 12 episodes to come.

Speaking of Yavin IV, Gilroy let slip to Collider that we’ll be paying a visit to the Rebel base’s headquarters soon. Oh, and successfully taking the fight to the Empire will also require Mothma turning a blind eye to the activities of operatives (like the aforementioned Rael) who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty.

“If your business is based on paranoia and secrecy and death, how do you expand your business?” Gilroy asked in EW. “How do you go public? How do you go wide? What happens to all the original gangsters and the hardcore people who built that road? What happens to them, and how do they integrate with [a legitimate Rebel Alliance]?”

Cassian will also be doing his best to stay ahead of Dedra Meero, the ambitious Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) agent who became obsessed with catching him. Matters may be a bit more complicated, however, now that she owes a debt to disgraced police officer Syril Karn, who saved her from rioters on Ferrix in season 1’s finale. 

After their surprisingly close encounter in a broom cupboard, Karn – the most intriguing, multi-layered character in the show – surely has a big part to play in the pursuit of Andor, the man who effectively ruined his career.

“The end of season 1 is so perfect for Syril,” told Esquire. “He’s kept Cassian as this talisman that’s giving him fuel to stay alive, basically. It’s a receptacle to put his frustration and aggression. And he’s still living at home, so he doesn’t have any friends or a therapist. He doesn’t have a dog. He also knows that he’s right.

“Then, through his relationship with Dedra, being seen by her and feeling seen, that’s a massive indication. And so this is like, ‘Wow, it’s [Cassian’s] mom’s funeral, it’s all coming together again. It’s at the place where I f***ed up last time. I can put this right’. He sees this opportunity to swoop in. It’s not even that he views it as a hero moment. I think it’s just his obsession with Cassian, that starts to extend itself to Dedra, because she’s involved in the same obsession. He recognizes that the two of them are more powerful together than they are separately.”

Given Andor season 2 directly leads into Rogue One (and, by proxy, Star Wars Episode IV), we’ll eventually see the Rebel Alliance learn about the Death Star and the Empire’s plan to use it against anyone who rebels. In the post-credits scene of season 1’s final episode, we learned that Cassian, Kino, and other Narkina 5 prisoners had been building components for the Death Star’s lazer array, meaning they had a hand in its creation. 

“It [the Death Star’s construction] will still be the looming threat,” Gilroy told The Hollywood Reporter. “Rogue One is all about discovering what it is. [Season two is] about who picks up the final breadcrumbs that lead to the beginning of Rogue One. In Rogue One, Cassian goes to the Ring of Kafrene to meet Tivik, who is from Saw’s group, and he says ‘Oh my God, it’s a planet killer’. Cassian knows some shit, but he’s looking for answers. So we’ll [cover] the breadcrumbs that lead up to that. But we have a situation where Cassian will never know that what he was building is actually the machine that’s going to kill him.”

Amid all the intergalactic and political warfare, one seemingly forgotten plot thread continues to dangle in the background: has Cassian given up on finding his sister, which is what set Andor‘s events in motion in its premiere?

“I don’t think so,” Luna teased to Collider. “I don’t think it’s over in Rogue One, because I see that as one thing. It’s like the feeling, it’s one of those things that kind of follow every decision you make, or never letting [go] anymore, not again. That kind of thing. And I think that’s behind the decision of that last mission, that suicide mission in Rogue One. That’s for her. That’s for Maarva, that’s for his people, for his community. I love the arc that Tony has built, and the arc ends in Rogue One, not in season 2. I think it’s going to be quite amazing to watch Rogue One after you see season 2.”

Andor season 2 trailer: is there one?

No – and we won’t get one for a while yet, unless Disney shadow drops one for Star Wars Day 2024.

Fans and journalists who attended Star Wars Celebration 2023, however, were treated to a sneak peek at some Andor season 2 footage. Reports say it included Stormtroopers, civil unrest, Cassian Andor on a mission against time, Mon Mothma rallying the Rebellion, and plenty of Syril Karn. Could we see some of those clips very soon? Over to you, Lucasfilm.

What to watch while you wait for Andor season 2

With Andor season 2’s release date still TBD, Star Wars fans new and old may want to pass the time with other TV shows set in Lucasfilm’s iconic galaxy far, far away. If that’s you, stick one of these series (two in particular are considered to be some of the best Disney Plus shows ever made) on to pass the time. Happy watching, young Padawan!

• The Mandalorian – billed as a space Western and set between Star Wars Episode VI and Episode VII, Pedro Pascal’s lone gunslinger becomes a surrogate father to ‘baby Yoda’, a juvenile of the legendary Jedi’s alien race, who is apparently vital importance to a Machiavellian scheme concocted by the Galactic Empire’s remnants. All three seasons are available in full on Disney Plus.
• Star Wars: Ahsoka – running parallel to events in The Mandalorian, this live-action sequel to Star Wars: Rebels, sees the fan-favorite Togruta Force wielder reunite with her Rebels allies to thwart the return of a menacing Empire general. Stream all eight episodes now and then read our Star Wars: Ahsoka ending explainer to see how it sets up Ahsoka season 2.
• The Book of Boba Fett – arguably the weakest of Lucasfilms’ live-action shows, Boba Fett’s standalone series sees the iconic bounty hunter navigate the underworld of Lucasfilm’s galaxy as he attempts to replace Jabba the Hutt as Tattooine’s number one crime lord. All seven episodes are available now on Disney Plus, aka one of the world’s best streaming services.

For more Star Wars coverage, read our guide on all of the new Star Wars movies and TV shows that are in the works. Alternatively, get the lowdown on other forthcoming series, including Star Wars: The Acolyte and The Mandalorian season 4.

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