Going Back to Where It All Ends

Having watched the second season of Andor once it debuted, I had the thought (as so many others have as well) of going back to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story to see how it all ties together. Rogue One is a prequel to Star Wars as much as Andor is a prequel to Rogue One, and if you want the complete story for Cassian Andor then you have to watch the film after the TV series. This is logical since the TV show essentially dead ends itself (at least for the main character) right up to the plot of Rogue One. The only way they could be more linked is if the TV show had come first, release wise, and then Rogue One had been put out in theaters as the series finale.

Which isn’t as crazy as it sounds since Disney is putting out The Mandalorian and Grogu in theaters next year, which is functionally acting as a series finale for The Mandalorian. It’s corporate synergy, and it does make sense from that perspective. I just don’t think anyone at Disney at the time thought, “yeah, people are going to want to see more of this random Rebel spy on his adventures before the Death Star is even a thing.” But they did, and even now people online are begging for more Cassian Andor (as played by Diego Luna) even though, spoilers, he’s dead. Pretty thoroughly and conclusively dead. No coming back from that.

So yes, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. We’re here because we watched the TV series leading up to it and now the question becomes: how well does Rogue One hold up now that we’ve had a two season TV series leading up to it. Does it make the movie better… or worse? And, without this sounding purposefully wishy-washy, it kind of does both. The movie was clearly designed without any thought to a prequel TV show coming along, especially one that wasn’t about the movie’s main character. Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones). Tying it into Andor is kind of a patch job, one that, at times, really shows its seams. Even though one dead ends into the other, you practically have to see them as two different things because their goals really are separate from each other, and that’s all down to the movie and how it does things.

For those that don’t remember (and yes, this whole article will be chock full of spoilers), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is all about Jyn Erso. She’s the daughter of Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), the chief engineer of the Death Star. When she was a young girl, the project head for the Death Star project, Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), came to the Erso farm sometime after Galen quit working on the project and demanded retirement. The Death Star project wasn’t going well, though, and Krennic needed Erso back, by any means… and that included trying to kidnap Galen’s daughter and wife to use as leverage. Except the wife gets herself killed, the little girl goes on the run, and Krennic is left only with Galen to control, who he uses to build the superweapon.

Years later, the adult Jyn (Jones) has been living on her own, away from the Rebellion (which she doesn’t care about), stuck in an imperial prison (for unknown crimes). A Rebel spy, Andor, frees her, though, saying he needs her help so they can find out what her father (who is still alive, she’s surprised to learn) has been working on and just what can be done to stop it. And then, over the course of a couple of days (more or less) Jyn goes from apathetic criminal to stalwart Rebel, all so she can find a way to stop her father’s legacy (which he begs her, via holo recording, to do) and save the universe from the destructive threat of the Death Star.

There are flaws with Rogue One, which I know I’ve discussed before, but even now, after all this time, they still stand out. The biggest issue with the film is, absolutely Jyn Erso. She doesn’t have an arc so much as a sudden about face. She goes from absolutely not caring about the Rebellion to being one of its staunchest freedom fighters. This isn’t a bad arc if it’s handled well but, as I note above, she’s barely involved in the story for more than two days before she realizes her whole life has been leading to her being a rebel. A little more time, and a bit more development, for her character could have gone a long way towards making her arc work.

I think a lot of this is down to the fact that the film was subject to extensive executive meddling. The original director’s cut of the film, as reported in the trades at the time, was darker which Disney and Lucasfilm didn’t much like. They wanted something closer to a rip-roaring Star Wars adventure, assuming audiences wouldn’t like something that was tonally different from the main films of the Sequel Trilogy that were coming out around the same time. So they forced extensive reshoots, and in the reports it said that Jyn’s character was changed a lot, especially in the back half of the film. You can feel this since her transition is super sudden and just doesn’t fit the character from the first half of the film at all.

Naturally, if you’ve just watched Andor you’re here to see Cassian’s arc and, well, it’s hard to say this film does him much justice. Naturally it wasn’t meant to as the creators never expected him to be the main character. He has a small arc, where he goes from heartless assassin to more caring freedom fighter, which doesn’t quite sync up with his portrayal in Andor. But the film really isn’t about him, or K2SO (Alan Tudyk) for that matter. They’re supporting characters for Jyn and her arc, and she gets to do much of the heavy lifting for the story. It’s fine, but an awkward fit for the TV show.

Although, as was pointed out online, if you watch the whole progression from show to film to film you have Cassian rising up from petty criminal to trusted Rebellion spy having his story get taken over by this girl he met two days earlier, who becomes the heroine of the story, only for both of them to die so that two other assholes, Luke and Han, can go blow up the Death Star and get all the glory in the next film. There’s no mention of a wall of stars to honor all the fallen fighters that died bringing down the Death Star, just two guys who came in near the end, getting a medals ceremony all because Leia, who was barely in the Rebellion at all up to that point, decided she needed a military parade.

This is all, of course, because this whole series of productions was basically done in backwards order. The danger of prequels is making stories that either can’t escape the shadow of what comes “next” or making them so devout to the original story that they’re little more than callbacks (call forwards?) to the original title. Thankfully Andor doesn’t do much of that, only dropping a couple of lines, and one gun, as little shout outs to Rogue One. It’s in Rogue One that we see more cameos (R2D2, C3PO, and Leia all making unnecessary appearances) and shout outs that feel forced and unnecessary. Again, like DIsney didn’t trust the audience with a Star Wars film that wasn’t overtly, in their face Star Wars.

I don’t think Rogue One is a bad film, mind you, but it is very awkwardly wedged in between Andor and Star Wars in a way that I actually feel does a disservice to both. It’s not as strong a story, or as interested in its characters, as Andor was, and it’s too focused on trying to make sure it “fits” Star Wars to really feel totally viable on its own. It was meddled with a little too much, made to suit too many people in too many ways, that right when it should be developing its own voice with its own characters, it becomes just a vehicle to get us to the next film. I like it, but not as much as I should, especially after just finishing Andor.

Rewatching Rogue One was interesting, but I think I’d much rather skip it again unless I’m feeling like seeing what happens to Cassian again. His series is great. This finale maybe not so much.