Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

The first Andor Season 2 trailer just arrived. Set, perfectly, to The Revolution Starts Now by Steve Earle it’s got the ruthless swagger and existential terror of its lead character. Alasdair Stuart dives in…

0.06 – That looks a lot like Yavin IV doesn’t it? The persistent talk about how this will go right up  to Andor’s appearance in Rogue One suggests so too.

0.10 – Corn field! Which shouldn’t be exciting but after so many stories starting or ending on Tatooine it’s weirdly nice to see a world that’s a little hospitable. If currently full of white suited fascists. And who are they shooting at? It looks, from the flappy jacket, like Cassian.

0.11 – TIE Avenger

That looks a lot like a TIE Avenger Cassian’s in the process of stealing. If so, this is a lovely piece of deep cut canon turned into narrative. The Avenger is a TIE variant that’s equipped with a hyperdrive and shields unlike the shrieking golf balls of death that the Star Wars universe is so used to. It is a massive strategic upgrade and one that, had it entered mass production, would have conceivably turned the tide of the war.

So Cassian appears to be stealing it.

0.20 – Saw Guerrera everyone. Looking very much like he does in Rogue One.

0.24 – Mon Mothma and Luthen

Genevieve O’Reilly’s superb Mon Mothma appears to be back home, at a wildly colourful celebration that couldn’t be further from the clinical horrors of Coruscant if it tried. Stellan Skarsgard’s Luthen Rael stares, haunted by his own deeds, into the distance. The interesting thing about this is they both look deeply unhappy. The perils of building the rebellion are taking their toll.

0.34 – ‘The Revolution starts…NOW.’

Cassian blowing the bloody doors (and presumably everything else) off in time to that line is REALLY nicely done. Also who’s with him? Is it Bix? And if so, where’s Brasso?!

0.37 – ‘What a swell party this is.’

Orson Krennic, professional bastard. Ben Mendelsohn is wonderful in everything and especially here. He’s the perfect foil for Cassian and Luthen and I love how folding him into this season gives the events of Rogue One a very different, personal dimension.

0.40 – Where Are We?

That looks like Yavin IV at first glance. But take a closer look and it seems to be the exact location used for D’Qar, the Resistance’s base of operations in The Force Awakens. If it is D’Qar, that’s a lovely piece of connective tissue. That the Resistance is so outnumbered and outgunned by The Force Awakens that they have to retreat to a world the Rebels started out on all those years ago.

0.40 – What’s Happening?

If that is a rebel base, and the X-Wings and troop carrier on the flight line suggest it is, then who’s in the ships? And why is the guard either knocked out or dead?

And why are the X-Wings apparently camouflaged?

0.50 – BRASSO!

I loved Brasso, the endlessly competent, calm, big brother to season 1’s disaster rebels. He’s back! With a beard! On the corn field planet! Being restrained! And looking really unhappy! Yay! But also OH NO!

0.52 – Those Are Not Stormtroopers

They’re not clones for one but the different loadouts and body shapes suggest Rebels. Or possible Imperial special forces at the rebel base which is why the guard is dead earlier in the trailer?

0.53 – Deedra Meero is very unhappy

As she should be. Denise Gough was a standout last season and I’m excited to see the second worst Imperial get to play with Orson Krennic.

1.04 – K2!

We know Alan Tudyk is back this season and it’s so good to see the galaxy’s most laconic security droid!

1.06 – Cornfield Embrace

This looks like the end of the sequence where Cassian uses a stolen TIE Avenger to see off an Imperial unit. But is that Bix he’s hugging?

1.08 – Tank

A massive battering ram looking vehicle rips up a street as it thunders along. This almost looks like a Corpo vehicle given the markings  and the architecture certainly looks like Ferrix.

1.10-  Syril Karn, We’re Saved

In a cast of incredible performances, Kyle Soller may be the breakout. The world’s absolute worst corporate failson, Syril Karn, was a terrible nemesis last year but this season seems to have resources (note the ID tag). Will he be any more dangerous? And what’s he seeing?

1.19 – ‘REMEMBER THIS MOMENT!’

Saw closes the trailer giving us a deeply terrifying motivational speech over a montage of shots including Bix fighting someone, Syril’s mom played with incredible joyful malice by Kathryn Hunter and various fights. It’s a great moment and it raises a really interesting question? Why is Saw not in a breathing mask and his apparently human scene partner is?

Andor season 2 arrives on April 22nd. It will be four three-episode arcs, each happening in the four years between the end of Andor Season 1 and Rogue One. We’re so ready.