‘Andor’ Highlights Exactly Why Cassian Was a Standout Character in ‘Rogue One’

The finale of Andor brought everything together in such a Star Wars way that fans are already sharing their love for the first season. The series was, for me, always something I was excited about because when I saw Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, I loved Cassian most of all. I left the theater and instantly bought Cassian Andor Funkos, and even though I thought I probably wouldn’t see him again, he was in my top favorite characters of the franchise.

Flash forward to the announcement that Cassian was getting his own series on Disney+, and it just made sense to explore this character more, in the time prior to sacrificing himself for the Rebellion. What works about Andor as a series is that Cassian is the kind of character who is on the ground floor of the Rebellion, so we get to explore a new aspect of the franchise with him.

But the reason Cassian as a character really works isn’t only because he’s new and fresh. It is also because of Diego Luna’s performance.

Diego Luna’s power

When you see Diego Luna as Cassian Andor, you instantly can feel the pain that Cass has experienced. You know his struggle and the fight in him, so when, in Rogue One, he says that he’s been in this fight since he was 6 years old, you feel that anger at the life that was taken from him. With Andor, we get to see the family that Cassian is losing on the way to getting the plans for the Death Star.

We see him first searching for his sister, and then we meet Maarva and learn about his adoptive father Clem’s death, and it just keeps layering onto the character we already know Cassian to be. With each new development, we know that they all paint the hero we get in Rogue One.

But it is through Luna’s performance that we get to see just how desperate he is to win for the Rebellion by the end of season 1. At the start, he’s still only in this fight for himself and trying to get answers he wants but in the last moments of season 1, he is standing in front of Luthen and asking to go with him in this fight.

But why is Cassian a fan fave?

I wish I knew what it was about Cassian that made me instantly fall in love, but I just did. I sobbed knowing that he sacrificed his life to the Rebellion while his name didn’t live on in the original Star Wars trilogy. He is seemingly forgotten to the fight, but that didn’t change his willingness to fight back against the Empire.

Cassian Andor has sacrificed so much in his life already, and we’re only at the end of season 1 of Andor. Knowing what he loses in the end? That’s going to make season 2 that much harder to watch as someone who loves Cassian in the way I do. But there is one thing about Andor that has been made abduntantly clear: It works because Cassian as a character is brilliant.

He’s always going to push back against the Empire even when he doesn’t really want to, and he’s always going to fight, and that’s why I love him so much and I’m just so happy I have a whole next season with Diego Luna as Cassian Andor.

(featured image: Lucasfilm)