With the poor performance of Solo apparently putting the brakes on Disney’s plans for Star Wars spinoffs, the announcement of a live-action series based on the adventures of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story character Cassian Andor came as something of a surprise. Clearly, someone made one hell of an elevator pitch to the commissioning executives, but given that he was one of the more interesting characters in the movie, his exploits before he got heroically blown to smithereens should make for a nice addition to the already very impressive Disney Plus slate.
Concrete information about the show has been thin on the ground up until now, but Production Weekly recently confirmed that it’s scheduled to begin shooting in October 2019 and provided the following plot summary:
“The rousing spy thriller will explore tales filled with espionage and daring missions to restore hope to a galaxy in the grip of a ruthless Empire.”
Admittedly, it’s not exactly the most in-depth breakdown of what’s going to happen in the show, but it at least indicates that there are probably already early spec plots being worked on and that they’ve mapped out the basic narrative arc. Given that the character was so ruthless and cutthroat in Rogue One, I’d imagine we’ll get to see how Andor’s heart hardened and why he embraced more morally questionable tactics in defiance of the Empire.
In addition, based on the production start date, I think we can surmise that Disney wants a high profile live-action Star Wars series premiering on Disney Plus approximately every year. If The Mandalorian does indeed air its first season in late 2019, then we could see this Rogue One: A Star Wars Story spinoff occupying the same slot around Christmas 2020. With that and the MCU TV shows featuring Loki, Scarlet Witch, Falcon and the Winter Soldier on the way, it’s looking like they’re making Disney Plus into an indispensable part of the streaming market.
