A Galaxy of Possibilities

A Galaxy Far, Far Away…

If you know me at all, it’s no secret that I love Star Wars. This has become a very broad statement, especially recently, because there is so much Star Wars, sometimes to its detriment but sometimes, I think more importantly, to its advantage.

I am of the generation that grew up with the Original Trilogy. That’s all we had. That and the expanded universe books from the 90’s. But that’s basically all it was until the prequels started coming out in 1999. Since then, it’s been almost non-stop Star Wars since then. There have been more movies, of course, and TV series, more books, comics, video games. Some are lighter and more kid-friendly, some are more serious, and there has been some great variety in animation. The swashbuckling Flash Gordon sci-fi fantasy mold of the original is hard to break.

I can’t say I love all of it, certainly not all equally, but I do love the universe and the possibilities it has for storytelling. Unlike most other shared universes, when it is done right, the galaxy far, far away is treated like its own full universe with a real history in which many genres can exist: adventures, war movies, crime stories, domestic dramas, comedies… all of it.

Two of the more recent entries into this Star Wars shared universe exemplify this diversity of genre: Skeleton Crew and Andor.

You know, for kids!

Skeleton Crew is essentially a kids adventure show with a fun, almost innocent tone reminiscent of The Goonies. Set ostensibly in the New Republic era (sometime after Return of the Jedi, probably around the same time as The Mandalorian), it doesn’t much matter when it is set or how it connects to the larger Star Wars universe. The story stands on its own, following a group of kids, who discover a buried starship in the woods just outside their suburban neighborhood. They are then swept up into an adventure with pirates and other strange beings as they try to make their way back home. I watched this show weekly with my 7-year-old son, and he was enthralled with each episode.

I say this because the show encapsulates what a fun adventure in the Star Wars universe can be for a kid without having to rely on the galactic implications of meeting a Skywalker. A child or newcomer to Star Wars can jump right into the series and just enjoy it as its own story.

Something that has been proved to be both a strength and a weakness in these shared cinematic universes—whether it be Star Wars or Star Trek or Marvel—is how connected everything is. Sometimes it can make the worlds and the characters and stories feel intricate and exciting, but other times it can make it all seem so overwhelming to new audiences. It can also make the worlds seem smaller. The more the interconnected characters share the same space, the less room there is for anyone or anything else. When a new movie or series in one of these massive IP’s can stand on its own, it’s nothing short of remarkable.

A New Kind of War

And that brings us to Andor. This is a Disney+ streaming series that is a prequel to Rogue One, which itself was a prequel to Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. It takes place in the years and days leading up to the story that kicks off the Original Trilogy. It has the ability to be chock full of characters and references to it, but it has a surprising amount of restraint in its ability to remain a standalone story that only builds to those things without relying on them.

Many have talked about the impact and quality of the drama of this series, so let’s talk about the style itself. Tonally, stylistically, demographically, it is the complete opposite of Skeleton Crew in many ways. Both are well crafted, engaging stories, but while Skeleton Crew stars and is for an audience of kids, Andor is unwaveringly for a sophisticated adult audience.

I think many people in the fandom space have been clamoring for a “dark and gritty” or “R-rated” Star Wars, but this is not that. Not really. Is it more mature and serious than other Star Wars movies and shows? Yes, but it does not do so in a shocking, exploitative way. It still retains the central Star Wars theme of hope, but it also looks at the cost of Rebellion. Rogue One was billed and celebrated as a “different” kind of Star Wars movie because it is unabashedly a war movie. If other Star Wars are Flash Gordon or Lord of the Rings in space, Rogue One is The Dirty Dozen. Still, with all the sci-fi battle scenes throughout the Star Wars Saga, having a straight war movie isn’t too far off.

Where Andor stands out is in its style and quality of writing. It more resembles an HBO-style prestige drama akin to the likes of The Wire than it does anything in, say, The Mandalorian or Ahsoka. The scene where I realized Andor was truly something different occurs part way into the first episode in which Syril Karn (essentially an assistant regional manager at a corporate security office) is told by his boss not to investigate a shady murder of a couple shady cops in a shady part of town because it’s too much paperwork, and the old man needs to get to a meeting-that-could’ve-been-an-email and he just wants to keep his job.

It’s a brilliant demonstration of workplace bureaucracy, it feels real, plus the writing and performances are incredibly watchable. Who hasn’t been in a position where they can’t do their job because their boss is just looking out for himself? Who hasn’t been the boss of an arrogant kid whose reach exceeds his grasp and you just don’t want to deal with it? Of course, Syril does go over his boss’s head and does pursue the investigation, which kicks off Cassian Andor’s entire journey toward becoming a rebel.

The entire series is filled with scenes like that. Simple dramatic, dialogue heavy scenes that would be boring in the wrong hands but are totally electrifying. This is what I think is so wonderful about what this opens up. If Star Wars can be both fun kid’s adventure and prestige drama, it can be anything.

It is also worth pointing out that most of Andor takes place at approximately the same time and is about the same general subject (the early days of the Rebellion) as Star Wars Rebels, an animated series primarily aimed at kids. Rebels is also very well made, and there is one episode (Season 3’s “Secret Cargo”) that functions as practically a continuation of Mon Mothma’s story immediately following Andor Season 2’s “Welcome to the Rebellion”.

Also, it will never be funny to me, that both Andor and Rebels have episodes with characters stealing TIE Fighters that occur and practically the same time, but with wildly different tones.

Stepping into a Larger World

In a way, that shouldn’t be surprising because Star Wars has always mixed genres. A New Hope is equal parts Flash Gordon and The Hidden Fortress. It takes its inspirations from westerns and The Wizard of Oz. It was both an allegory for the Vietnam War and a children’s fairy tale. The universe is so rich and malleable, it has the ability to do all those things, separately and simultaneously.

And that to me is the brilliance of the potential diversity of Star Wars. Just like movies set in the real world, let there be prestige dramas and kid’s shows. Let there be comedies. Let there be musicals! They have already used animation brilliantly in projects like Star Wars Visions which allow different kinds of stories in different animation styles to be told in this universe.

Star Wars is a big universe. I love it when Star Wars feels like how it felt watching the Original Trilogy, but I also love it when it feels like something new and different. Let there be more shows like Andor. Let there be more shows like Skeleton Crew.

Let it be all the different kinds of things it has the ability to be. There is no limit.