118: Star Wars: Andor (with Roxana Hadadi and Corey Atad)

Roxana Hadadi, a TV critic for New York magazine's culture site Vulture. and returning guest Corey Atad join me for an enthusiastic discussion of Tony Gilroy’s ambitious new Disney Star Wars streaming series Andor.

Gilroy, who had been brought in by Lucasfilm to rescue the troubled production Rogue One in 2016, recently returned to the franchise for a series that provides a backstory for the character Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) who sacrificed his life to steal the plans for the Death Star. But Andor the series is not really a Space Opera with the typical fan servicing Disney has provided Star Wars fans in recent years. Instead it’s a program built as a series of mini arcs that analyze how fascist rule is systemically maintained (through private police, colonial rule and the prison industrial complex) and how people living under such a system can either become radicalized, victimized or complicit. It’s Star Wars fused with Blade Runner, The Battle of Algiers and yes, Michael Clayton. We discuss the show’s intelligent design and impeccable vibes, and we wonder, for a show that is so clearly sympathetic to antifascism, why it hasn’t enraged the culture warriors on the right who are usually always angry about Star Wars.

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Roxana’s interview with Andor's creator Tony Gilroy, for Vulture, November 23, 2022

Tony Gilroy speaking from the picket lines in support of the 2008 Writer’s Guild strike.

Trailer #2 for Star Wars: Andor (Season 1, 2022)