New Star Wars Series Inspired By Donald Trump
The former president inspired Star Wars!
It’s not often that you hear Star Wars and the orange-tinted former President in the same conversation, but apparently, Andor is about to change all of that. Of course, with creator Tony Gilroy leading the charge on the new Star Wars series, it’s no surprise that he’s bringing a political edge to a galaxy far, far away. The writer behind political thrillers like Michael Clayton and the Bourne trilogy has “written a great, scurrilous [take] on the Trumpian world,” according to Fiona Shaw, who is playing Maarva in the series. She adds “Our world is exploding in different places right now, people’s rights are disappearing, and Andor reflects that. [In the show] the Empire is taking over, and it feels like the same thing is happening in reality, too.”
While Star Wars is typically over-focused on the affairs of Jedi, particularly those of the Skywalker lineage, but the universe has been branching out into different directions with the various Disney+ shows. We’ve seen a greater focus on bounty hunters, clone troopers, and various other facets of the Star Wars universe. While the prequel trilogy touched on some political machinations of the Galactic Senate at the surface level, there haven’t really been too many Star Wars properties that aimed for a more nuanced portrayal of the politics. It’ll be interesting to see how Tony Gilroy delves into this world, especially if it’s partially inspired by a divisive political figure like Donald Trump and the post-Trump era.
While Tony Gilroy operates comfortably in the political thriller genre, this won’t be his first foray into the Star Wars universe. He also co-wrote the screenplay for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which forms the basis for Andor. Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) was introduced in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and this series will focus on his adventures five years prior to the events of Rogue One as he works with the burgeoning rebellion against the Empire. If you’ve seen Rogue One, then you know that Tony Gilroy doesn’t necessarily need Jedi to be part of the Star Wars story he tells. That movie was all about the group of rebels who worked together to obtain the plans for the Death Star, which eventually led to its destruction in the original trilogy.
Disney is clearly on board with Tony Gilroy’s vision for Andor, as the show has already been confirmed for a second season. The first season will cover Cassian Andor’s first year as a revolutionary and the second season will cover the next four years leading up to the events of Rogue One. In addition to Diego Luna, Andor will star Genevieve O’Reilly, Stellan Skarsgard, Adria Arjona, Denise Gough, Kyle Soller, Fiona Shaw, Forest Whitaker, Anton Lesser, Robert Emms, David Hayman, Alex Ferns, and Clemens Schick. If you’re looking forward to Andor and its Donald Trump-inspired political environment, then you don’t have long to wait. The series will be hitting Disney+ on September 21 with a three-episode premiere. Subsequent episodes will be released weekly until November 23. If you can’t get enough Star Wars content, make sure to check out the animated series Tales of the Jedi and the second season of The Bad Batch when they hit Disney+ this fall. We’ll also be getting a third season of The Mandalorian in February.
