One of the most successful Star Wars movies on Disney+ is great on its own, but the two-season prequel show based on it is even better. Since Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, Disney+ has had access to all the Star Wars movies, and the streaming service also made several original Star Wars shows. These Star Wars projects form a big chunk of Disney+‘s best science fiction offerings, but there’s one pairing of a movie and a show in particular that stands above the rest.
One of the best Star Wars movies in general, and certainly one of the most universally beloved during Disney’s command of the franchise, was Rogue One: A Star Wars* Story*. It followed Jyn Erso as she joins the Rebel Alliance and helps them discover the Death Star and a weakness built into it by her father, steal the plans, and eventually deliver them to the Rebellion in time for Luke to destroy the station in the original Star Wars.
Rogue One was a smash hit almost instantly. It made $1 billion at the box office, it commanded impressive critic and audience scores in the mid-80s on Rotten Tomatoes, and it is still the most universally loved Star Wars movie Disney has ever produced. Rogue One is simply great, but the two-part prequel show that followed it, Andor, is somehow even better and widely considered the best Star Wars show ever made.
It isn’t easy for a prequel series to surpass the original story, but Andor accomplishes it with Rogue One in spades. All the best parts of Rogue One, the focus on the Rebel Alliance’s more ordinary members, the political intrigue, the covert operations, and more are turned up to 11 for Andor. Simply put, Andor does everything that Rogue One does for Star Wars, and it does it better.
Rogue One, by itself, was already a great movie from start to finish. It was lean, efficient, and it told a complete story that fit seamlessly into established Star Wars lore. It didn’t seem like it could even be improved, but by the time Andor season 2 ended with Cassian departing for the mission that would lead him to Jyn, the prequel series had made Rogue One infinitely more tragic, suspenseful, and great. Andor added so much context into the massive effort that went into discovering the Death Star that Rogue One retroactively became the culmination of one of the greatest stories in science fiction history.
Andor did tremendously well with the endpoint that Rogue One gave it, but where the series really shines is in its wholly new and original additions to Star Wars. Every new character in Andor, from Luthen and Kleya to Syril and Dedra to Bix and Brasso, is utterly amazing. Every one of the show’s characters is fully realized, remarkably complex, fantastically portrayed, and better even than the impeccable crew in Rogue One.
The story of Andor also far surpasses the story of Rogue One. Every single moment in Andor is designed to keep audiences on the edge of their seats. The show’s intrigue, its political messaging, even the way it depicts the Empire not as a fantasy villain but as a terrifying real example of fascism, makes it a true epic. There are moments in Andor where a single conversation carries as much gravity and tension as entire battles in Rogue One.
There’s no other way to describe Andor than as a modern masterpiece. It’s the most haunting, moving, suspenseful, and horrifyingly timely show arguably in science fiction in general, but certainly among the other Star Wars shows. There’s even an argument to be made that Andor is the single best Star Wars story ever told. It’s a life-changing show that cannot be praised enough, and it soars far beyond the limits of Rogue One.
The most impressive part of Andor being better than Rogue One is the fact that the latter is one of the best Star Wars movies in recent years. It would be one thing if Andor had surpassed, say, The Rise of Skywalker, an infamously bad film. But Rogue One is genuinely a masterpiece in its own right. It made $1 billion at the box office, it secured some great reviews from critics and audiences alike, and it was a very high point in Disney’s tenure over the franchise.
Maul - Shadow Lord is combining the complex and in-depth analysis of Andor with the investigation of the Force from Rebels to make a fascinating show.
Rogue One set an impossibly high bar to surpass. It was the most gritty, suspenseful, exciting, and mature Star Wars story ever told when it came out. The entire film feels like a war movie in the best way possible. The all-new characters feel real and well-written, the emotional stakes are as high as possible, the action is tremendous, and everything about Rogue One works.
There’s basically no way Rogue One could have been a better movie, but despite that, Andor is still better. Rogue One did everything right from top to bottom, from its largest space battles to its most intimate character moments, and Andor is still better in almost every way. It’s a testament to how amazing Andor is, that it far surpasses one of the best Star Wars movies ever made.
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Action & Adventure
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2022 - 2025-00-00