Star Wars in 2022 is serious stuff. No, really
The Star Wars franchise truly hit a nadir in 2018 with Solo, the prequel movie about the origins of the series’ charismatic space smuggler.
Someone observes the then-surnameless Han is travelling alone. Thus he adopts the name “Solo”.
In a series where every character’s name is sci-fi gibberish anyway (Droopy McCool, for Yoda’s sake??) it was a toe-curling sign of an intellectual property eating itself. How solo was Han when he had a giant Wookiee beside him anyway?
Star Wars looked doomed yet here we are in 2022 and the mojo has returned.
Andor has charted the origins of ill-fated rebel Cassian Andor, who we last saw in the movie Rogue One.
Instead of farting about with lightsabers and the origins of why Yoda is green, Andor is down in the dirt and, surprisingly, is asking difficult questions of what it means to rebel in a grim, totalitarian society.
Bizarrely, this is Star Wars via something meaningful like The Wire, with every line of dialogue and every action purposeful.
Over 12 episodes, Diego Luna’s prickly, anxious Andor has shot first and didn’t bother to ask questions later.
Meanwhile, Stellan Skarsgard’s rebel mastermind is making a case for why terrorism and murdering innocents is necessary in a fascist society; Droopy McCool better watch out for a bomb under his X-Wing.