Latest news with #Cassian
Geek Feed
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Feed
The Internet's Best Reactions After the Andor Season 2 Finale
It's been a great run, but like any other series, Andor eventually had to end; and what a spectacular ending it had. The weekly release has been able to give way for great fan reactions every week, and now with the show ending, some fans have a lot to say about saying good-bye to Cassian and everyone else in the series; and while it is sad, that doesn't mean we can't have any fun with it. It's probably worth mentioning that Kleya (Elizabeth Dulau) has come out as one of the MVPs on the show, and the final arc does give a lot of backstory as to her origin with Luthen and their journey to defeat the Empire. Cassian to the Rebel Alliance: — SirSnipeyy | Andorhypeguy (@SirSnipeyy) May 14, 2025 "There is no team. It's only her." Kleya Marki you are THAT GIRL. #AndorSeason2 #Andor — talli (@ttalliiaa) May 14, 2025 And while he is only a guest actor for this season, Ben Mendelsohn has managed to eat up ever scene he has as Imperial director Orson Krennic. #andor spoilers–––––––– i can't even explain half the shit krennic does bro wanted to go to julliard but his parents forced him into the military — lina 🌌 is SO back (@ambessasabs) May 14, 2025 // #andor spoilers•••• Krennic's finger on Dedra's head is taking me OUT this is the divaest a diva has ever divaed — Tali ! (@taliesart) May 14, 2025 There are also some who are just happy to see that Dedra finally got what was coming to her: #andor ......... ON PROGRAM, YOU FASCIST BITCH!!!! — christina of markyate stan account (@paisagoth) May 14, 2025 Even though she ended up losing it all Dedra lowkey ATE UP Luthen in the shop #Andor — Lalo 🍵 Andor sweep (@clonehumor) May 14, 2025 And of course, Mon Mothma finally got her pixie cut that she's been infamously sporting since Return of the Jedi introduced the character: you know it went something like this before they approached bail: 'you go talk to him.' 'no, you go.' '…let's just go together.' #andor — .• linds •. (@acosmiclove) May 14, 2025 mon mothma had her crashout pixie cut during the rebellion but then knew she had to lock back in and serve cunt again as chancellor — maxine ☽ ANDOR SPOILERS!! (@ahsokaskyber) May 14, 2025 And though he only appears in one scene, it's funny how the series goes full circle with just how paranoid Saw Gerrera had become: // #andor spoilers••Mon: Saw, we KNOW you're on Jedha. Saw: I COULD BE ANYWHEREMon: No, I'm not asking, I'm TELLING you we know. Saw: ANYWHERE IN THE GALAXY — Tali ! (@taliesart) May 14, 2025 Jokes aside, a lot of people have just been gushing about how the series actually harkens back (or foreshadows) Rogue One , and how everyone just felt like revisiting the film after finishing Andor . Tony Gilroy you will pay for this parallel #Andor — Nyrotike (@nyrotike) May 14, 2025 — Maximalist Epic Dude (@Maximalistepic) May 13, 2025 Even when Andor was first announced, nobody expected that one of the supporting characters from Rogue One was going to make for an interesting series, but Tony Gilroy managed to pull it off; delivering a Star Wars series that not only looked fantastic, but had such relevant themes that some say needed to be explored in today's day and age. We don't know if Star Wars will ever get something like this again, but hopefully the rave reviews will have Lucasfilm thinking twice before they make another season of The Mandalorian filled with all kinds of cameos and digitally youth-anized characters. Catch the complete second season of Andor now streaming on Disney+.
Los Angeles Times
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
‘Andor' is very Latino-coded. Here's how.
Looking back, casting Diego Luna in 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' may well prove to be the single most consequential decision in that storied franchise's history. Hearing Luna's Mexican accent in a galaxy far, far away was not only refreshing. It was radical. And as Season 2 of 'Andor' proved, it set the stage for what has to be the most Latino-coded of all the 'Star Wars' tales, which is fitting considering this Tony Gilroy-created series was designed not just to explore Cassian Andor's backstory but flesh out the dashing revolutionary spirit Luna had brought to the character. What better place to, pardon the pun, mine for inspiration than the vast history of resistance and revolution throughout the American continent? Here are a few ways in which 'Andor' felt particularly Latino. Warning: this article contains some spoilers. Season 2 of 'Andor' found Cassian, Bix (Adria Arjona), Brasso (Joplin Sibtain) and Wilmon (Muhannad Bhaier) relocated to the agricultural planet of Mina-Rau. It's a place that served as a safe haven for these Ferrix folks, allowing them to be housed while working for a local farmer — all without papers. Yes, our very own Cassian is an undocumented laborer (when he's not, you know, on some super-secret Luthen-guided mission, that is). 'Andor' has always focused on the way the Empire functions at a granular level, while the 'Star Wars' feature film trilogies are all about big-picture stuff. In its two-season run, this Luna-fronted project followed the day-to-day lives of those living under the thumb of the Empire. And in the scenes at Mina-Rau, the show insisted on showing what happens when those with a semblance of power (a uniform, a weapon) confront those who they think have none. When Lt. Krole (Alex Waldmann), a lowly Imperial officer carrying out a run-of-the-mill audit of the crops in Mina-Rau, comes across Bix, he sees an opportunity. She's clearly alone. And, perhaps most obviously, at a disadvantage: She has no papers. If she's caught, the secure, if precarious, life she and Cassian have built in Mina-Rau will come crumbling down — all while putting them at risk of being revealed as smugglers and rebels. Still, watching Krole escalate his slimy sexual advances into a rape attempt was a reminder of the impunity of such crimes. When those who are undocumented are seen as undeserving of our empathy, let alone the protections the law is supposed to provide — like many people in our current government seem to think — the likes of Krole are emboldened to do as they please. Such ideas about who merits our empathy are key to authoritarian regimes. Borders, after all, aren't just about keeping people out or in. It's about drawing up communities and outlining outsiders; about arguing for a strict sense of who belongs and who does not. When Cassian and Bix land in Coruscant after their escape from Mina-Rau, they struggle with whether to just lay low. You see Cassian being jumpy and constantly paranoid. He can't even handle going out shopping; or, if you follow Bix's winking joke at the grocer, he can't really handle the spice. But that's expected if you constantly feel unsafe, unable to freely move through the world, er, tellingly: If your existence is wedded to bureaucracy, it's easy to be dispensed with and disappeared. Bix knows that all too well. She's still haunted by the specter of Dr. Gorst (Joshua James), the Imperial Security Bureau officer who tortured her. He appears in her nightmares to remind her that this is a war now littered with 'desaparecidos': 'His body won't be found and his family won't know what happened to him,' his hallucination taunts her. It's not hard to read in that line an obvious reference to those tortured and disappeared under the military dictatorships of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and the like. Throughout 'Andor' Season 2, we also watched the Empire slowly rev up its border policing — especially when it came to Ghorman. At first a planet most known for its gorgeous textiles, Ghorman later became the anchor for the show's entire narrative. The best way to control a people is to surveil them, particularly because soon enough they'll start surveilling themselves. The beauty of 'Star Wars' has always been its ability to speak to its time. When the original film first premiered in 1977, echoes of the Vietnam War and anti-imperialist sentiment could be felt in its otherwise outlandish space-opera trappings. But not until 'Andor' could the politics of George Lucas' creation be so viscerally felt. This is a show, after all, that didn't shy away from using the word 'genocide' when rightly describing what happened in Ghorman. In 'Who Are You?' audiences got to see the Empire at its cruelest. Watching the Death Star destroy Alderaan from afar is one thing. But getting to watch Stormtroopers — and a slew of young, inexperienced Imperial riot police officers — shooting indiscriminately into a crowd that had just been peacefully singing in protest was brutal. It was, as Senator Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly) would later frame it, unconscionable. The chants in the crowd 'The galaxy is watching' are clearly meant to evoke the chants heard at the 1968 Democratic National Convention: 'The whole world is watching.' But the essence of the massacre harks back to another infamous 1968 event: the Tlatelolco massacre. Just like Ghorman, the Oct. 2 student protests at Mexico City's Plaza de las Tres Culturas began as a peaceful demonstration. But soon, with helicopters up above and an encroaching military presence from every which way, chaos followed and the incident has long served as a chilling example of state-sanctioned violence. The kind now best distilled into a fictional massacre in a galaxy far, far away. In the hands of Gilroy and Luna, 'Andor' billed itself over two seasons as the begrudging rise of a revolutionary. Cassian spent much of Season 1 trying to hide from who he could become. It took being sent to a grueling slave prison complex in a remote location (sound familiar?) to further radicalize the once-smug smuggler. But with every new Empire-sanctioned atrocity, he found himself unable to escape his calling as a member of the Resistance. Yes, it costs him his peaceful life with Bix, but neither would have it any other way. Cassian has a solid moral compass. And while he may not play well with others (with authority, really), he's a charming leader of sorts whose childhood in Ferrix set him up to be the kind of man who would sacrifice his life for a cause. You don't need to have Luna sport a mustache, though, to see in his rascal of a character hints of revolutionary icons from Latin America. Even if Cassian is more Emiliano Zapata than Pancho Villa (you'd never find him starring in films as himself, for instance), the revolutionary spirit of those historical Mexican figures is undeniable. Especially since Cassian has long been tied to the marginalized — not just in Ferrix and Mina-Rau but later still in Ghorman. Add the fact that his backstory grounds him in the indigenous world of Kenari and that he is quite at home in the lush jungles of Yavin IV (where he may as well be playing dominoes in his spare time) and you have a character who clearly carves out homages to resistance models seen all over Latin America. As attacks on those most disenfranchised here in the United States continue apace, 'Andor' (yes, a spinoff sci-fi series on Disney+!) reminds us that the Latin American struggles for liberation in the 20th century aren't mere historical stories. They're warnings and templates as to how to confront this moment. And yes, that message obviously works best when delivered by the devilishly handsome Luna: 'The Empire cannot win,' as his Cassian says in the first episode of the show's stellar second season. 'You'll never feel right unless you're doing what you can to stop them. You're coming home to yourself. You've become more than your fear. Let that protect you.'
Geek Tyrant
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
Tony Gilroy Opens Up About ANDOR's Poignant Series Finale and the Shocking Legacy Cassian Leaves Behind — GeekTyrant
Tony Gilroy always had a finish line in sight. From day one, Andor was meant to walk us straight into the opening frames of Rogue One . The final stretch of episodes not only deliver on that promise, but they also carve a heartbreaking, human path that reshapes how we view Cassian Andor's fate. As the series ends, Gilroy finally offers insight into what it took to thread this story into the larger galaxy, and why hope had to be the last thing left told Variety: 'I was pleasantly shocked as we started to work out the cause and effect of what happened. That shit laid down really clean.' He's referring to how naturally the show's final arc aligned with Rogue One's setup, something he once dreaded. 'It presented itself without the incredible amount of effort that was anticipated.' The final three episodes of Andor unfold in the days just before the events of Rogue One . In Episode 10, 'Make It Stop,' we witness the dominoes start to fall. Luthen Rael, the shadowy architect of the Rebellion, discovers Galen Erso's existence and the looming threat of the Death Star. But his attempt to sever ties with the Rebel network is quickly interrupted when Imperial officer Dedra Meero corners him. In a shocking moment, Luthen attempts suicide to avoid capture, forcing his loyal companion Kleya to infiltrate a hospital and quietly remove him from life support, sparing the Rebellion from potential exposure. While that episode is packed with tension and reveals, Gilroy sees it differently. 'Episode 10 is its own thing, really, a special temple. It'll be interesting to see how it lands with people.' In Episode 11, 'Who Else Knows?,' the series shifts gears into heist mode. Cassian is on a desperate mission to rescue Kleya from Coruscant, with the Empire breathing down their necks. The cat-and-mouse tension reaches a fever pitch in the finale, 'Jedha, Kyber, Erso,' which shows Cassian returning to Yavin IV with crucial intelligence. While the Alliance Council, led by Bail Organa and Mon Mothma, debates what to do, Cassian shares a quiet, powerful moment with Vel Martha remembering the fallen and reflecting on how far they've come. But Gilroy wasn't aiming for a bombastic finish. 'I wasn't worried about driving 12,' he admits. 'It's a very different energy. We didn't want to kick it, no.' Instead, the finale slows down, letting the characters breathe. 'The scene between Vel and Cassian to me is just worth its weight in gold. I normally like to keep my foot on the gas... but I didn't really want to have that speedometer on Episode 12.' The final gut-punch comes in the closing shot. Cassian's former partner, Bix, now holds his infant child… their child. The reveal is subtle but loaded. It reframes Bix's heartbreaking decision to leave Cassian back in Episode 9 and adds new emotional layer to the sacrifice he'll soon make in Rogue One . 'I just could not ever envision the possibility of not being hopeful,' Gilroy says. 'I know it's a cheesy T-shirt kind of idea, but there has to be something hopeful. There has to be a candle.' He always had the idea of the child 'in his back pocket,' not as a franchise setup, but as emotional closure. 'That does three things for me... It makes his sacrifice just that much more epically painful... and it also lets me have hope at the end. It gives me an open door... to a real feeling for the audience.' Of course, that open door invites speculation, will we see a story about Bix and Cassian's child someday? Gilroy doesn't rule it out, but he's stepping back. 'I think I did my thing here,' he says, before adding, 'That's how I feel today.' As for whether a show like Andor would even get greenlit in today's streaming climate? Gilroy is unsure. 'The practical way we made the show on the scale we made it, that might be more in jeopardy... I think AI and volumetric filmmaking will get much more sophisticated. I don't know whether anybody's going to do an old-school kind of show the way we made it.' In the end, Andor stands as one of the strongest and most mature entries in Star Wars storytelling. It's a slow-burn epic about resistance, consequence, and belief. Gilroy's final act in the series doesn't explode, it echoes.
The Hindu
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
‘Andor' Season 2 finale review: The Force is with Cassian and company in thrilling, tragic climax
What a smashing segue into Rogue One the finale of Andor Season 2 is! The bitter-sweet ending brings some character arcs to a close and leaves others open-ended, much like life itself, which very rarely ties up all loose ends in a pretty bow. Dropping three episodes weekly is immensely satisfying as it makes Season 2 like watching four mini-movies. A year after the wedding at Chandrila, the Imperial designs on Ghorman, and the escape from Mina-Rau, Cassian (Diego Luna) and Bix (Adria Arjona) are working for Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård). Still troubled by the torture she suffered, Bix has become a shadow of herself, drugging herself to a stupor. Andor Season 2 (English) Creator: Tony Gilroy Cast: Diego Luna, Kyle Soller, Adria Arjona, Stellan Skarsgård, Genevieve O'Reilly, Denise Gough, Faye Marsay, Varada Sethu, Elizabeth Dulau Episodes: 12 Runtime: 38 – 60 minutes Storyline: As the terrible truth of the Ghorman massacre and other Imperial actions come out, both sides pay a grave price The Ghorman massacre, which the Imperial forces spin as an insurrection is the final straw, for senator Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly) and she makes a speech denouncing Emperor Palpatine. In a nail-bitingly tense sequence, Cassian helps her escape to Yavin IV, laconically commenting, 'Welcome to the rebellion.' The final three episodes that lead directly to Rogue One, sees the different narrative strands being pulled tighter together. The ambitious Imperial Security Bureau officer, Dedra Meero (Denise Gough), who was assigned to Ghorman by the director of advanced weapons research, Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), returns to hunt for her bête noir, the rebel agent, code named Axis, who is actually Luthen. Ghorman took a lot out of Dedra, personally as well, when her partner, the equally driven Syril Karn, (Kyle Soller) paid the ultimate price. As Dedra gets within a hair's breadth of uncovering Axis, Luthen sets up exit protocols. Though Cassian helps Bix get closure on her torturer, Dr Ghorst, she leaves Cassian urging him to continue working for the revolution, promising him she will find him after 'it is all over,' which we, as the audience know will not happen. As things fall apart, the Rebel Alliance grows stronger as does the Death Star, which Krennic says is a just a week away from being ready. Andor continues to thrill, with many Easter eggs, including, 'May the Force be with you', while still being solidly on the side of strong story telling. All character arcs are given their time, including Mothma's husband, Perrin (Alastair Mackenzie) who is shown drinking his troubles away in the back of a transport. Vel (Faye Marsay) Mothma's cousin puts her lover, Cinta's (Varada Sethu) loss behind her to further the cause. We learn of Luthen's and his efficient assistant, Kleya's (Elizabeth Dulau) past. There is no return to Cassian's home planet of Kenari even though he dreams of the green hillsides before it was destroyed by Imperial forces. The dialogues are full of quotable quotes from extremist leader Saw Gerrera's (Forest Whitaker), 'revolution is not for the sane' to Nemik's (Alex Lawther) 'tyranny requires constant effort.' The return of the reprogrammed Imperial droid K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), ensures some C3PO-type humour. The worlds are beautifully realised, with the gigantic, sterile buildings contrasting starkly with the spectacular wilds. The level of detailing, from costumes (Cassian makes for a natty designer on his undercover visit to Ghorman) to Ghor, the language spoken on Ghorman, is nothing short of marvellous. The visual as well as implied signatures are mind boggling from the tall impersonally beautiful buildings to the sterile prisons and anonymous apartments. The spiders of Ghorman, the Ghorlectipods, whose silk is used to create the fabulous Ghorman twill, are unable to stand against the might of Imperial misinformation and might. The spiders are also emblematic of the tangled webs, characters weave in the pursuit of perceived needful things, only to be trapped by them. Luna has created a very human rebel leader in Cassian and Skarsgård manages to keep the audience as well as the Imperials and rebels off kilter about his true intentions. All the cast, in their roles big or small, have us invested in their stories. Tony Gilroy, who wrote Rogue One with Chris Weitz, has created a spectacular show that tells of a rebel and a revolution and the role of a fascist government in birthing them. Andor is currently streaming on JioHotstar
Newsweek
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
Recapping the Ending of 'Andor' Season 2: Everything You Need to Know
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Entertainment gossip and news from Newsweek's network of contributors "Andor" has finally come to an end. Premiering back in 2022 to rave reviews, the series second season has concluded, leaving only the events of "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" to follow. Here's what happens in the series finale. Read More: Andor Season 2 Episodes 10, 11, 12 – Release Date, Schedule, How To Watch DISNEY How to Watch 'Andor' Both seasons of "Andor" can be streamed on Disney+. What Happened at the End of 'Andor' Season 2? The final episode opens with Cassian, Melphi, and Kleya in the Coruscant safehouse with the trio discussing a trip back to Yavin. They come close to either being killed or getting arrested by a squad of ISB troopers and are saved only by the efforts of K-2SO, who bulldozes through the troopers. On Yavin, Mon Mothma is arguing over a comm link with Saw Gerrera, trying to urge caution. Mon says she knows he's on Jedha - which Saw denies - and that his constant destruction of Imperial transports is causing problems for everybody. Saw is clearly growing more paranoid, and accuses Mon of sending spies after him before cutting off communication. When Cassian returns to Yavin, it isn't to a warm welcome. In spite of the news of Luthen's death, the leadership is unmoved by the information that death bought. Rebel leaders like Bail Organa and Admiral Ackbar seem to think it's just as likely that either Luthen was being played or that he was turned as it is that this news about a weapon is genuine. After leaving the meeting with the leadership and visiting Kleya in the infirmary, Cassian has reunions with Wil and Vel. He and Vel share a drink first to Luthen, and finally to all who have died fighting the Empire. Back on Coruscant, Major Partagaz is summoned to a meeting as he listens to Nemik's manifesto. We are never told who the meeting would be with but it clearly has to do with the major's recent failures. The armed troopers waiting outside his conference room can do nothing as Partagaz kills himself with a blaster. On Yavin, Bail Organa visits Cassian and tells him the leadership, in spite of their doubts, have decided to let him go to Kafrene to contact Tivix. As Cassian heads to his ship, we catch glimpses of different characters in the show both on Yavin and off. Mon's husband Perrin is drinking with a woman slumped against him. Dedra is in prison and Krennic is, predictably, overseeing the construction of the Death Star. Finally Cassian and K-2SO leave Yavin for Kafrene. But the series ends not on Kafrene, but back in the fields of Mina-Rau. After briefly seeing the usually mopey droid B2EMO playing with a new droid friend, we see Bix in the distance holding who can only be Cassian Andor's child. She smiles bittersweetly as she gazes at the sky, clearly thinking of Cassian. Will There be a Season 3 of 'Andor'? There will be no Season 3 for "Andor". Season 2 ends where "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" begins, leaving no more story for a third season. How to Watch 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' After Finishing 'Andor' "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" is the 2016 film which "Andor" serves as a prequel to. The film can be streamed on Disney+. More TV: 'Andor' First Look Clip Shows New Look at Diego Luna
