Warning! This article contains spoilers forAndor.
Tony Gilroy has delivered a stunning, vibrant, fresh vision of a galaxy far, far away in his newStar Warsseries,Andor. The show has been praised for taking the franchise in a bold new direction, with three-dimensional characters, a more nuanced portrayal of the conflict between the Rebellion and the Empire, and a different kind of story than fans have seen before in theStar Warsuniverse.Andoris also taking an all-new approach toStar Wars, both stylistically and narratively, by drawing on all-new influences.Star Warsstories are typically influenced by samurai films, westerns, and other space fantasies, butAndoris drawing influence from spy thrillers, political dramas, prison movies, and, most importantly, real-life history.
George Lucas has always worn his influences on his sleeve. The basic narrative structure of the originalStar Warsmovie – a wise old warrior joins a ragtag band of heroes to save a kidnapped princess from an evil force, all told through the eyes of two slaves/droids – wastaken from Akira Kurosawa’s 1958 jidaigeki masterpieceThe Hidden Fortress. The pulpy storytelling, opening text crawl, and cosmic battle between good and evil were drawn from sci-fi serials likeFlash Gordon. Roguish gunslinger Han Solo and the wretched hive of scum and villainy where Luke and Obi-Wan find him were ripped straight from the reels of classic westerns.
RELATED:Andor Shows How Much Better Rogue One Could’ve Been
When Jon Favreau createdThe Mandalorianfor Disney+ (andeffectively saved theStar Warsfranchisefrom extinction), he stuck to Lucas’ original reference points, but explored new storylines and archetypes from those source genres. Like Boba Fett before him, Mando is an ice-cool, bounty-hunting spaghetti western antihero in the mold of Clint Eastwood’s “Man with No Name” character, but the central dynamic of a world-weary warrior taking a young ward under his wing is cribbed from the iconicLone Wolf and Cubseries. This formula has since been done to death inStar Warsmedia, replicated inThe Bad Batch’s Omega storyline andObi-Wan Kenobi’s Leia storyline. The latter series drew heavily from other samurai films, too, using the setup of a grizzled Obi-Wan who had renounced the Jedi way and gone into hiding to explore the “ronin” trope from samurai cinema.
But withAndor, Gilroy has left behind the influence of westerns, samurai movies, and even other science fiction stories. It’s a relatively grounded spy thriller whose street-level action,practical effects, and immersive handheld camerawork have more in common with Gilroy’s work on theBournefranchise. TheBournemovies reinvigorated the spy genre with a dose of gritty realism, andforced the James Bond team to up their gamewithCasino Royale. In an interview withTotal Film, Gilroy compared the ground-level espionage of theBournefilms toAndor: “We are on the ground with these people, so that everything that we do has an intimacy and an acoustic nature to it within the grandeur ofStar Wars.”
When Lucas introduced Coruscant in the prequel trilogy, the capital city-planet of a thriving democracy was designed to look like the futuristic Los Angeles seen inBlade Runner. ButAndordoesn’t just borrow its neon sheen from the Ridley Scott sci-fi noir classic; it also delves intoBlade Runner’s themes and attitudeswith its nihilistic portrait of a lawless dystopia. Mon Mothma’s scenes in the Imperial Senate take a look at the Empire’s oppressive rule through the lens of a behind-the-curtain political drama likeMr. Smith Goes to Washington, as elected officials struggle to make a difference within a corrupt system. WithHouse of Cardsshowrunner Beau Willimon on the writing staff,Andoris bringing razor-sharp insight to the political impact of Palpatine’s turn from democratic leader to autocratic ruler.
Themost action-packed episode ofAndorsaw Cassian taking part in a daring Imperial heist on the mountainous planet of Aldhani. This whole episode played like aStar Warsversion ofMission: Impossible. The series took its time establishing the stakes of the robbery for a couple of episodes before the immensely satisfying payoff of the heist episode. Much like intheMission: Impossiblemovies,Andorclearly lays out how the meticulously plotted infiltration and extraction are supposed to go, so that the audience can pinpoint when it all goes horribly wrong.
Throughout its first season,Andorhas evoked all kinds of cinematic gems, translating their well-worn tropes to a fantastical setting. Arvel Skeen’s proposal to Cassian to make off with the loot from the heist and split it 50/50 recalls the greed and paranoia of Humphrey Bogart’s Fred C. Dobbs inThe Treasure of the Sierra Madre.Cassian’s bleak wrongful imprisonmentat a high-tech Imperial work camp, sustained only by the camaraderie he shares with his fellow inmates, harks back to every classic prison movie fromPapillontoCool Hand LuketoThe Great Escape.
Most importantly,Andoris taking influence from real-life history and recontextualizing familiar stories from the past into the framework of a galaxy far, far away. Lucas has always taken inspiration from the annals of history to tellStar Warsstories, but he tended to draw from specific historical wells for a given plot point or character arc. The strugglebetween the Rebels and the Empirewas conceived as a parallel to the Vietnam War, with the Imperial machine taking the place of the U.S. government and the Rebellion’s plucky freedom fighters taking the place of the Viet Cong.
The Stormtroopers were named after the German soldiers from World War I. Lucas took influence from Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi propaganda films for the ominous framing of the masses of subservient Stormtroopers marching at their rallies. The space battles are inspired by the dogfights from both World Wars. The Jedi Council was modelled after the Knights Templar. The fall of the Galactic Republic was modelled after the fall of Rome. The Great Jedi Purge was modelled after the Night of the Long Knives. The Death Star was based on Cold War-era W.M.D.s. Emperor Palpatine was inspired by real-world dictators and political figures ranging from Julius Caesar to Napoleon Bonaparte to Adolf Hitler to Richard Nixon.
ButAndorisn’t based on any one specific historical event; it draws from every era of history. Diego Luna toldIGN, “This is the story of how a revolution starts. What forces you to be willing to sacrifice everything? That’s the story we’re telling here: the story of a refugee who is forced to reinvent his reality.” Throughout human history, there have always been powermongers like the Emperor, and there have always been revolutionaries like Cassian Andor willing to get their hands dirty in order to topple their regime.Andorusesthe escapist world ofStar Warsto tell a deeply human story about the little people who stand up to oppressive tyrants.
