47 Fun Facts About Andor

The parts Cassian builds in an Imperial prison factory in Andor turn out to belong to what?

The Death Star: a post-credits scene in the season-one finale shows droids fitting the prisoners' work to its firing dish, so Cassian helped build the weapon he later dies exposing.

Andor's opening year is counted back from which battle in the Star Wars calendar?

Yavin: the opening caption 'BBY 5' means five years before the Battle of Yavin, the fight that ends the original 1977 film; season two then skips forward a year at a time until it reaches Rogue One.

Which actor plays Cassian Andor?

Diego Luna plays Cassian in his own Mexican accent, a rarity in a franchise of American and British voices, and is also an executive producer of the series.

Who was Andor's original showrunner, replaced before filming began?

Stephen Schiff, a former New Yorker writer and executive producer of The Americans, was named showrunner in late 2018, but Tony Gilroy had taken over by the time cameras rolled.

Under what working title was Andor filmed?

Pilgrim was the cover name, which slipped out in 2021 on a road-closure notice for a location shoot; Kathleen Kennedy had announced the real title in December 2020.

Who plays rebel spymaster Luthen Rael?

Stellan Skarsgård let slip in February 2022, seven months before the premiere, that a second season was already lined up to shoot later that year.

By what codename do Imperial agents know Luthen?

The ISB knows Luthen only by the codename Axis; Dedra Meero's season-one arc is her obsessive hunt for the man behind it.

What is Luthen's public cover on Coruscant?

Luthen's cover is as an antiques dealer, running a gallery of galactic artifacts on Coruscant where his assistant Kleya handles covert communications.

Who plays Deputy Inspector Syril Karn?

Kyle Soller plays Syril Karn, the deputy inspector whose hunt for Cassian begins after two corporate security officers are killed in the opening episode.

Syril starts Andor working for which corporate authority?

Syril is a deputy inspector for the Preox-Morlana Corporate Authority, or Pre-Mor, which polices the Morlana sector until the Empire takes over after the Ferrix raid.

Which actress plays mechanic and black-market dealer Bix Caleen?

Adria Arjona plays Bix Caleen, the Ferrix mechanic and salvage dealer whose torture by the ISB's Dr Gorst in season one haunts her through season two.

Who plays Cassian's adoptive mother Maarva?

Fiona Shaw's Maarva gets the last word: a recording played at her own funeral urges Ferrix to fight the Empire, and when an officer tries to silence it the crowd riots.

Which actress was originally cast as Maarva before dropping out?

CCH Pounder, best known for The Shield, left the part before filming began; Brasso was recast too, after Game of Thrones actor Rory McCann was injured mid-shoot.

Who plays ISB supervisor Dedra Meero?

Denise Gough plays Dedra as the bureau's most diligent officer; Tony Gilroy wanted viewers on her side as she fights her way up, then wishing she weren't so good at her job.

What is the name of Mon Mothma's teenage daughter?

Mon Mothma's daughter is Leida, played by Bronte Carmichael; season two opens with her arranged wedding to Stekan Sculdun, son of the banker Davo Sculdun.

Who is Dedra's commanding officer at the ISB?

Major Partagaz chairs the ISB's supervisor meetings and wants proof, not theories; once Dedra shows a pattern in rebel thefts, he takes the Ferrix case from a rival supervisor and hands it to her.

Mon Mothma represents which wealthy core world in the Senate?

Mon Mothma is the senator for Chandrila, a wealthy Core World; she secretly channels her family fortune into the fledgling rebellion.

Who plays Mon Mothma?

Genevieve O'Reilly has played Mon Mothma since Revenge of the Sith, where her scenes were cut, and returned in Rogue One and Rebels.

How is rebel operative Vel Sartha related to Mon Mothma?

Vel Sartha is Mon Mothma's cousin; she leads the garrison raid and is in a relationship with the medic Cinta Kaz.

On which planet does season one's Imperial payroll heist take place?

Aldhani's Imperial garrison is robbed during the Eye, a rare spectacle in the sky that draws the Dhani pilgrims and gives the rebels cover to escape.

Which idealistic young rebel writes the anti-Empire manifesto?

Karis Nemik, the young idealist on the garrison heist crew, writes the manifesto; its 'freedom is a pure idea' passage is heard in the season-one finale.

On which moon is the Imperial prison factory where Cassian is held?

Narkina 5 is a water moon whose prison floors can be electrified, so a handful of guards control thousands of inmates.

Andy Serkis plays which prison floor manager?

Andy Serkis plays Kino Loy, the prison floor manager who leads the breakout; he had earlier played Supreme Leader Snoke in the sequel trilogy.

What is the name of Cassian's home planet, ruined by the Empire?

Cassian's home planet is Kenari, a world abandoned after a mining disaster; Maarva has him claim to be from Fest to hide his origin.

By what name was young Cassian known before Maarva took him in?

The boy is called Kassa on his home world; Antonio Viña plays him in the flashbacks before Maarva smuggles him away to Ferrix.

Cassian's alias on the run is the name of which relative?

Cassian travels as 'Clem', the name of his adoptive father Clem Andor, Maarva's partner, played by Gary Beadle and executed by Imperial troops on Ferrix.

What is the name of Maarva's stammering household droid?

Maarva's droid is B2EMO, or Bee, a battered groundmech salvage droid performed by puppeteer Dave Chapman, who also voices him.

Who plays Bail Organa in season two?

Benjamin Bratt took over Bail Organa in season two, the role Jimmy Smits had played in the prequels, Rogue One and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Ben Mendelsohn reprises which Rogue One role in season two?

Orson Krennic, Rogue One's director of advanced weapons research, opens season two by chairing a secret summit about a mineral the Emperor's energy programme needs.

Alan Tudyk voices which reprogrammed Imperial droid?

Alan Tudyk voices K-2SO, the reprogrammed KX-series security droid; he was written out of season one but returns in season two after the droid is captured and reprogrammed.

Which planet's massacre does Mon Mothma denounce in her Senate speech?

Mon Mothma denounces the Ghorman massacre in the season-two episode 'Welcome to the Rebellion', calling the Emperor a monster before Cassian extracts her from the Senate.

Who plays Luthen's assistant Kleya Marki?

Elizabeth Dulau plays Kleya Marki, Luthen's assistant, who takes centre stage in season two when she slips into an Imperial hospital to silence the wounded Luthen.

Kleya and Luthen's flashbacks in Andor were inspired by which 1973 road movie about a con man and a girl?

Paper Moon, Peter Bogdanovich's comedy starring Ryan and Tatum O'Neal, was the model, though the actress who plays Kleya called Andor's version 'so much darker'.

Who composed the score for Andor's first season?

Nicholas Britell, the Succession composer, recorded the score with a full orchestra in London without being able to travel there himself because of the pandemic.

Who took over from the original composer to score most of Andor's second season?

Brandon Roberts scored most of season two and remixed a dance tune from the first season into the club track Mon Mothma dances to at her daughter's wedding.

How were the twelve episodes of Andor's second season released?

Three per week for four weeks, from April 22 to May 13, 2025, so that each week's block told one year of the story.

Andor filmed in which London district, whose Tube station had already appeared in Rogue One?

Canary Wharf hosted an Andor shoot in April 2021; a few years earlier the Jubilee line platforms of its station had been dressed as an Imperial base for Rogue One.

Which Lancashire seaside town's promenade was dressed as the resort planet Niamos?

Niamos was shot on the promenade at Cleveleys, near Blackpool, whose stepped concrete sea defences doubled as the resort world's seafront in 2021.

Who directed Andor's first three episodes after Gilroy could not travel during the pandemic?

Toby Haynes was already in Britain and high on the list for later episodes, so he took the opening block when Gilroy chose to stay in New York; he returned for the prison arc.

Which director handled six of the twelve episodes in Andor's second season?

Ariel Kleiman directed the first six episodes and was prepping at Pinewood well before filming began; Tony Gilroy gave up his own hope of directing, calling the showrunner's job 'just too huge'.

Which House of Cards creator was part of Andor's writing team?

Beau Willimon was the House of Cards showrunner Tony Gilroy had worked for as a consulting producer; on Andor the roles reversed, and Willimon wrote the prison-break episodes for him.

In Ferrix custom, the ashes of the dead are pressed into what?

Ferrix cremates its dead and mixes the ashes into a brick that is mortared into the town's walls; Maarva's brick becomes a weapon in the season-one finale riot.

Which honour did Andor win for both its 2022 and its 2025 season?

Peabody Award: the judges praised a world that stresses the need for grassroots organising against a fascistic state bent on smothering any spark of rebellion.

Who plays Syril's overbearing mother Eedy Karn?

Kathryn Hunter's Eedy coldly takes her sacked son back in, belittles his prospects, then calls in a family favour to get him an interview at the Bureau of Standards.

In Andor's prison break, what do the inmates chant as they storm up through the levels?

One way out: the floor manager who starts the chant leads the men to the edge of the sea, then admits he cannot swim and stays behind.

Gilroy compared an early script's pairing of Andor and his droid sidekick to which film duo?

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was his shorthand for the buddy-adventure draft; he found it limited and claustrophobic, and wrote to Kathleen Kennedy proposing a different show.

The first two episodes were broadcast on which US network on November 23, 2022?

Disney aired Andor's first two episodes on ABC on November 23, 2022, with further showings on FX, Freeform and Hulu that week to attract new viewers.