For fans of the halcyon days of Star Wars – that glorious blend of analogue retro-future-tech, cod-Japanese mysticism and swishy laser swords – 2016’s Rogue One: a Star Wars Story is perhaps the last great movie set a long time ago, in a galaxy, far, far away. At the very least, it is the last Star Wars movie that has not proven fiercely divisive, alienated large portions of its fanbase (even if quite a few of them seem to be right-wing trolls) or ruined entire trilogies.
It inspired the prequel TV series Andor, an unusual example of a Star Wars show that has flourished despite having almost no connection to George Lucas’s original trilogy, and felt like that rare example of the nostalgia-fest that somehow manages to say something new while it mines our souls for moon-eyed dopamine hits. If Daniel Mays’ terrified Tivik and Riz Ahmed’s teary-eyed Bodhi Rook don’t turn up in Andor season two, Tony Gilroy and his team will have missed a serious trick. I would happily watch an entire Disney+ show based on either short-lived character’s torpid existence floating around the spaceports of the outer rim.
