Andor Season 2
The Star Wars spinoff series Andor is officially over. The bittersweet Season 2 finale premiered on May 13, with the final three episodes now available to stream. Why won’t there be a third season of the acclaimed show on Disney+? Here’s everything to know.
The prequel centers on lead character Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), who originally appeared in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and tells the origin story of the Rebel Alliance, which would go on to defeat the evil Galactic Empire.
“In an era filled with danger, deception and intrigue, Cassian Andor will discover the difference he can make in the struggle against the tyrannical Galactic Empire,” the synopsis for Season 2 reads. “He embarks on a path that is destined to turn him into a rebel hero.”
The second season kicks off in 4 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin), with the finale leading directly into the events of Rogue One. Season 2 has proven to be a hit among fans so far, and on Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an impressive 98% critics score and a solid 84% audience rating. So, with its critical success, why is the Star Wars prequel series ending after only two seasons?
Why Won’t There Be An Andor Season 3?
“Andor” Season 2 on Disney+.
There are a few reasons why Andor Season 3 isn’t happening, with the main one being the physical demands of creating a show like Andor, which takes two and a half years to produce a single season.
“You just couldn’t possibly physically make five years of the show,” creator Tony Gilroy told Variety in August 2024. “I mean, Diego would be, like, 65. I’d be in a nursing home,” he quipped. “We were panicked. We can’t sign on to this forever.”
Luna told The Hollywood Reporter in April that each season would take approximately two and a half years to produce, making it “impossible to keep the rigor, the attention to detail that we have in this show” for five seasons.
“It’s the best that could happen, saying let’s have two seasons, let’s finish in a moment where we’re all loving what we are doing, when we’re in love with not just the material but the process,” he continued. “It hurts to say goodbye, but it’s better to say goodbye at this moment than when you can’t keep going.”
Another reason why Andor is likely ending with Season 2 is the show’s massive production cost. In 2024, Disney revealed that the cost of making Andor had skyrocketed to $645 million (£504.8 million) after spending a record $290.9 million (£232.1 million) the previous year on Season 2 alone.
This marks the highest annual spending on a Star Wars production ever disclosed in Disney’s public filings, Forbes contributor Caroline Reid reported at the time.
Was Andor Always Meant to End After Two Seasons?
Andor Season 2
Not quite. When Andor was announced back in 2018, the spinoff was envisioned as a five-season series, with each season representing one of the five years leading up to Rogue One.
However, halfway into filming the season one, Gilroy told SFX Magazine that the “monumental size of the show, the effort, and everything else” was dawning on them.
“We realized that I didn’t have enough calories to do it, and Diego’s face couldn’t take the timing, because it just takes too long to make it.,” he continued. “We were saved by Disney saying, ‘Okay, if you guys can figure out a way to do it, we’re into it.’”
That’s when Gilroy, Luna, and executive producer Sanne Wohlenberg came up with a solution: to create a 12-episode second season, with each three-episode block representing moments in Cassian’s life within a single year.
“When we come back, it’s a year later, and it’s a Friday, Saturday and a Sunday. And then we go away for a year,” Gilroy explained to Variety. “And then we come back for, I think, eight days. And then we go away for a year. And we come back, and it’s four days.”
Warning: Spoilers ahead for the Season 2 finale of Andor.
How Does The Andor Season 2 Finale Lead Into Rogue One?
Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) in Andor Season 2.
The final three episodes take place in 1 BBY – just before the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – and show viewers the final moments leading up to the first significant conflict between the Rebellion and the Empire. It begins with Luthen Rael, the first Rebel agent to uncover evidence of the Death Star, which ultimately leads to his death.
After discovering the information about the Death Star that Luthen died to secure, Cassian sets off on the mission we see in Rogue One, joining Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) and a team of rebels to steal the Death Star’s schematics from the Empire’s base on Scarif. While we already know how Cassian’s story ends, the conclusion of Andor Season 2 continues his legacy in a surprisingly beautiful way.
The final scene in Episode 12 reveals that Bix Caleen has returned to Mina-Rau and is raising a baby. Bix was pregnant when she left Cassian on Yavin IV in Episode 9, and it appears she wanted to raise their unborn child somewhere safe from the Empire.
In an interview with IGN, Gilroy called Bix’s sacrifice “powerful” and said it was meant to instill hope at the end – especially knowing how things play out for Cassian and the others.
“For anyone who had doubts in [Episode] 9 about her motivation, it underlines it at the end. Absolutely,” the creator said. “It makes his sacrifice even more powerful. So much stronger. I mean, you want hope at the end… It would be cruel and unnatural to put all these people through all this stuff and not have a candle in the window at the end.”
Andor Season 2 is streaming on Disney+. Watch the official trailer below.