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Diego Luna as the title hero in »Andor«: Uprooted Drifter
Photo: Des Willie / Lucasfilm / Disney+
It takes staying power to stay on top of the epic battle between rebels and Imperial troops, the antipodes of the »Star Wars« universe.
Fans of the fantasy saga have known this since franchise owners Disney shamelessly exploited the material invented by George Lucas in the 1970s and splintered it out of epic cinema into smaller and smaller streaming fragments.
Maybe it's quite fitting that you need a little patience at the start of the new series "Andor" this Wednesday.
If you only watch the first of three available episodes, you probably won't be overwhelmed.
It is only with episodes two and three that the plot bars of the first half hour, which are initially screwed together a little awkwardly with many dialogue scenes, condense into a coherent and ultimately solid plot structure.
Taken together, the three episodes function like a pilot.
The other episodes of the series, which is planned for two seasons with twelve episodes each, are said to be divided into such triples again and again.
A somewhat daring construct, especially in times of dwindling attention from the inflationary bombarded streaming audience with content.
But showrunner Tony Gilroy insisted early on that his series, for which he took over the world building and wrote numerous screenplays, wanted to do many things differently than usual.
The author of the fast-paced Bourne thrillers and director of the grittiest, dirtiest Star Wars film yet, Rogue One, was given carte blanche by producer Kathleen Kennedy after its surprising box-office success to try something new: a Star Wars « series for adults, which relies more on a panoramic, less explosive narrative.
For once, noble Jedi knights or fascist-dark Sith Lords do not play a major role in »Andor«,
just as little as the pseudo-religious fuss about spiritual "power".
Only the ubiquitous droids, above all a clumsy model called "Bee", seem to serve as a cuteness enhancer in the basically depressing scenario.
It is spoken with more or less strong British accents
With Dickensian verve and a lot of working-class colouring, »Andor« is dedicated to the marginalized in the engine room of the great star wars.
It tells the history of the later rebel leader Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), who, as is well known, steals the plans of the imperial Death Star in »Rogue One« and, like all other main characters, loses his life at the end of the film.
»Andor« now shows him as an uprooted drifter who makes his way through the slums of intergalactic industrial cities as a technology fence.
His actual mission: he wants to find his little sister again, from whom he was once separated on his home planet Kenari.
He himself was abducted as a boy by resistance fighters and thrown into a nomadic life.
The fate of his indigenous family tribe is unclear,
Scenes that play in the dirty metal processing plants or in the working-class districts of Ferrix, and flashbacks into the nature of Kenari, destroyed by industrial overexploitation, suggest the image of a ruthlessly subjugating colonial empire that not only subjugates, exploits and enslaves their inhabitants, but entire planets .
The uniforms of the governors and police forces of large imperial companies, who are soon on the hunt for Cassian Andor and his accomplices, are in the well-known »Star Wars« cut, but their coloring with red and blue accents creates a connection to British colonial troops in the 19th century, In addition, all classes of this society speak with more or less strong British accents.
The indigenous appearance of Andor's tribe on Kenari as well as the jungle landscape of the planet creates visual connections to the conquest of South America by Spain and Portugal, but the clothing of the indigenous people also seems to point to former South Asian colonies.
These are strong references to real history, very radical for an escapist fantasy series, and at the same time »Andor« becomes a mirror of current debates about refugees, those displaced by war and the coming to terms with colonial atrocities.
It should be about real people, Gilroy recently told the US industry magazine Variety.
"Star Wars" has so far mostly revolved around a royal family.
"That was great.
But there are billions of other beings in this galaxy.
There are plumbers and beauticians!
What are their lives like?
The revolution affects them as much as everyone else.
Why not use the ›Star Wars‹ canon as a host organism for absolutely realistic, passionate and dramatic stories.« Instead of relying on Disney's digital studio technology and having actors act in front of green screens or the virtual LED theater »The Volume«, let them Gilroy actually build the winding alleyways and derelict factories on Ferrix as a walk-through set to make it feel more tangible and authentic.
This is impressively shown in a wall on which workers in the Scrapyards hang their shapeless, worn gloves after work.
Each individually sculpted and colored pair is genuine.
However, all these honorable details and claims do not yet result in an exciting series.
After two seasons of "The Mandalorian" (still exciting at first), "The Book of Boba Fett" (pretty snoring) as well as "Obi-wan Kenobi" (yawn) and various animation offshoots, it is questionable how much patience is even more interested viewers is to find their way into the elaborate world of »Andor«.
Especially since you think you are in the wrong science fiction film right from the start: Diego Luna sneaks in a trench coat through the pouring rain of a dark, dystopian city night and enters a neon-cool brothel whose boss, like the rest of the scenery, looks like something out of »Blade Runner « seems sprung.
The first appearance of »Bee«, curving and rattling through junk landscapes, makes one think of Pixar's funny robot »Wall-e«: The originality that Gilroy claims and that gradually unfolds in the course of the pilot triple is also missing at the beginning thanks to the staid direction (by Toby Haines, who screwed up »Utopia«), there are still many traces.
The proletarian saga »Andor« also demands an iron work ethic from the »Star Wars« audience.
»Andor«: From September 21 on Disney +
