How much time passes between big Star Wars events? In most of the Disney+ Star Wars TV series, the timelines are all fairly condensed. With the exception of some flashbacks in The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka, most of the actual plots unfold over a few weeks or, in the case of Andor, a few months. But the gaps between the classic movies and the prequels are much longer, and now, with Andor Season 2, Star Wars is taking a cinematic approach.
We’ve known Andor would feature big time jumps, but the structure of those jumps makes Season 2 sound more like four interconnected Star Wars movies rather than just a collection of episodes. According to Nerdist, Adria Arjona — who plays Bix — has outlined how Andor Season 2 will be structured:
“In between every three episodes, there’s a year, and then there’s three more episodes, then a year, and then three more. So, you’re seeing the evolution of these characters through such a large span of time, and I’ve never done that.”
Andor Season 1 took place five years before Rogue One and A New Hope, and jumped forward a few months here and there. Season 2 will be a huge departure in terms of pacing and plotting. Showrunner Tony Gilroy teased this structure in 2023, when he said each block of three episodes would cover three days before jumping forward a year.
While this structure is a departure for Star Wars TV, it resembles the original film trilogy. The events of A New Hope seem to cover a few days, then there’s a three-year gap between the climatic Rebel victory at the Battle of Yavin and the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back. Similarly, three years pass between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, which both seem to take place over a few days.
So focusing on big events in the Star Wars galaxy, then jumping ahead, is a formula that works. If fans somehow needed another reason to be excited about Andor Season 2, this is it. Andor Season 1 broke new ground for grounded realism within the Star Wars galaxy, and now Season 2 will try to give its unique storytelling style the sweep of an epic Star Wars story.
