I finished the second season of Andor: A Star Wars Story (or whatever they’re terming it now), turned around and rewatched both seasons, and started looking at articles and podcasts about the show. In particular I started looking at Tony Gilroy’s interest in bringing in real world historical examples of authoritarian governments, and the resistance movements against them, and how he worked them into the Star Wars universe. Star Wars has always been about resistance against tyranical regimes; Andor just tells the story from a different angle.
In the course of searching for politically themed material, I also came across so much more. The art of the set and costume design, the art of structuring the story in three episode arcs, the way leaving so much unsaid, or happening off camera, helps shape the story and focus it.
This post is just a place for me to collect links to things I’ve read, listened to. and watched. I’m likely to add to it as I find other pieces I want to remember and perhaps go back to. It doesn’t necessarily mean I agree with everything the people in the collection say. However, I’d recommend the two podcasts with Wajahat Ali and Danielle Moody very highly, as well as Thomas Coombes’ piece, “Star Wars show Andor is the story about resistance we need right now: Why science fiction matters for social change“
Resource Websites:
Star Wars dot com Andor page
https://www.starwars.com/series/andor/
The Story Tellers Guild – youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/@TheStorytellersGuild1
Still to review:
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/apr/24/andor-star-wars-parallel-gaza-israel-palestine
Podcasts
Danielle Moodie and Wajahat Ali talk about both seasons of Andor in these podcasts, focusing not just on the politics and resistance angle, but on a kind of archtypal presence of the different roles resistance members (and Empire loyalists) represent. Really interesting perspectives. Includes both the hour long conversation between Waj and Danielle about Andor Season 2 (and more) and Danielle’s writeup of the series and its key characters.
Andor’s Warning: How Fiction Unmasks Trump’s Fascism
Lessons from a Fictional Rebellion: The Need to Resist the Numbing Agenda of Fascists and Reclaim the Truth.
Jul 23, 2025
THE LEFT HOOK with Wajahat Ali and Danielle Moodie
https://thelefthook.substack.com/p/andors-warning-how-fiction-unmasks?r=36kin&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
“One Way Out”: How the Anti-Fascist Politics of ANDOR is a Blueprint to Resist MAGA
Even if you’re not a Star Wars fan, the hit show ANDOR provides an instructive window to ordinary people using every leverage at their disposal to resist a fascist regime corrupting the universe.
May 21, 2025
THE LEFT HOOK with Wajahat Ali and Danielle Moodie
https://thelefthook.substack.com/p/one-way-out-how-the-anti-fascist
We Disrupt This Broacast (Podcast): Andor: Tony Gilroy on Oppresive Regimes and Popular Revolutions
10 April 2025
https://pod.link/1685960595/episode/76ccfb8daa98b8b886b9457c964bc3cd
How ANDOR Adapts History Into Star Wars.
Film Can’t Die from May-ish 2025 (“3 months old” is the date as of my copy-paste on 7/29/2025)
Mehdi Hasson on his msnbc weekend show, I think
In Words
Star Wars show Andor is the story about resistance we need right now: Why science fiction matters for social change
Thomas Coombes
Apr 24, 2025
https://hopebased.substack.com/p/star-wars-andor-resistance-story
Most of Star Wars is essentially a family drama about the Skywalker clan: heroes predestined for greatness. Andor is an origin story for the Rebellion that is about the everyday people who make up the resistance.
Andor doesn’t just give us a working-class hero: it gives us a working-class planet of scrap metal workers.
The story of how change happens in Andor is that people need to unite and work together, rather than waiting for an elite space monk to come and rescue us.
Why Andor’s Grown-Up Heroes Matter to Faithful Adults:
Is grown-up storytelling possible in a secular world? Andor proves mature stories can exist without nihilism.
April 21, 2025
Alan Hurst
https://publicsquaremag.org/media-education/pop-culture/andor-star-wars-moral-depth/
LDS-focused Allen Hurst writes about adult dangers, adult storytelling, and more
‘Andor’ Creator Says Star Wars Series Is Not A Commentary On Modern Politics, Any Parallels The Result Of “The Repeating Patterns Of Revolution And Authoritarianism”
May 13, 2025
Spencer Baculi
https://boundingintocomics.com/tv-shows/andor-creator-says-star-wars-series-is-not-a-commentary-on-modern-politics-any-parallels-the-result-of-the-repeating-patterns-of-revolution-and-authoritarianism/Spencer Baculi |
“So this sounds like an ‘answer,’ [i.e. one that is pure PR fluff and meant only to dodge controversy] but it’s the truth: The repeating patterns of revolution and authoritarianism, and all of the attendant things that go with that, they just replicate.”
“Our show is about what happens when history comes knocking on your door, and if people find history knocking at their door, there’s probably all kinds of places they can look for references,” he added. “We just happen to be the pick of the litter this week.”
Per a quote shared by Vary in the introduction but not included in the full interview transcript, Gilroy also noted that when it came to Andor‘s story, he was specifically “writing about how I feel about all the revolutions, about all the insurrections [in history].”
“People legitimately fail to recognize how puny their individualism is,” posited the showrunner. “The narcissistic belief that you live in some unique time — it’s shocking. We all do it. I do it. That is not the pattern of history.”
Andor review: The best, and most leftist, Star Wars show yet
29th November 2022
By Joe McFadden
https://mancunion.com/2022/11/29/andor-review-the-best-and-most-leftist-star-wars-show-yet/
‘Andor’ Can Teach Us a Lot About Nonviolent Resistance, Too
Andor Shows Us What Popular Culture Could Be
In an era of banal, homogenous mass media, Andor refuses easy optimism and shows us that building a better world is a hard, necessary task. It’s exactly the imaginative pop culture we need.
filed
Jon Greenaway
https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/andor-shows-us-what-popular-culture-could-be
Since its very conception, Star Wars has been political. Now Andor will take on Trump 2.0
Published: April 21, 2025
kind of a thin take on things, but a good summary of the political influences, noting that Disney tried to distance itself from any particular current-day references (Trump, mostly)
Stephen Staley: Andor and the politics of despair
Commentary1 4 June 2025
“Andor offers more than escapism. It’s a compelling meditation on how systems break people, and how people, sometimes, break systems back. It reminds us that freedom isn’t won by manifestos. It’s built piece by piece, often by those who don’t live to see the result.”
Andor: how a Star Wars deep cut became one of the best TV shows of the year
With no Jedi or Skywalkers to be seen, this politically charged, slow-burn thriller adds human stakes and a real sense of the fascism behind Star Wars’s endless civil war
Walter Marsh
Mon 21 Nov 2022
Andor Is Still the Best Star Wars Going
By Dan McLaughlin
April 27, 2025 3:51 PM
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/andor-is-still-the-best-star-wars-going/
Andor Season 1 Explained: A Deep Dive into Rebellion’s Genesis, Imperial Politics, and Philosophical Underpinnings
Greg Robison May 13, 2025
“As a lifelong Star Wars fan, Andor is one of my favorite properties – particularly for its portrayal of rebellion. Below is an unedited Google Gemini Deep Research report on the background and philosophy of season 1 of Andor (spoilers ahead).”
Andor Season 2 Explained: Forging Rebellion, Facing the Abyss
Greg Robison May 16, 2025
After doing an analysis on season 1 of Andor, we’re back for season 2 that just finished — wow, what a culmination. Below is an unedited Google Gemini Deep Research report on the background and philosophy of the last season of Andor (spoilers ahead).
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