Imagine going back in time to tell a Star Wars fan about the future of the franchise. Just five years ago, one could tell them that extremely popular minor character Boba Fett and widely forgotten minor character Cassian Andor would both have solo projects. Ask them to guess which one worked, and they’d almost certainly guess wrong.
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Andor and The Book of Boba Fett are both shows about characters that shouldn’t really have needed solo projects. During production, the pitches were roundly criticized for their apparent reliance on existing material. Disney has long been scared to expand the Star Wars universe after the public reaction to their sequel trilogy was less than stellar. With that in mind, shows about characters who haven’t enjoyed the spotlight in the past, but have been around enough to have name recognition, come across as cowardly. When Boba Fett dropped, fears were proven right. The show was dull at the best of times. It was a naked attempt to advertise for other future Star Wars projects wrapped in a weak space western. The Book of Boba Fett had nothing to say about the franchise it occupied or the man whose name was in the title. It would’ve felt safe to assume that Andor would be the same thing before it came out, but that assumption was proven very wrong.
Andor was a firebomb thrown into the heart of a franchise that genuinely felt as if it would never surprise us again. It’s an act of radical creativity, the logical conclusion of huge elements of the source material, and the most moving story to come out of the galaxy since Empire. Creator Tony Gilroy and the entire cast and crew elevated the material into a place it was always meant to occupy. Some have argued that Andor would be improved by divorcing itself from the Star Wars franchise, but that misses the point of the material. It needs that legacy to demonstrate where it came from and where it’s going. This is the fundamental difference. Andor seeks to engage the audience and elevate the Star Wars story. Boba Fett seeks to appeal to nostalgia and keep old fans watching the new stuff.
If someone had way too much faith in Disney, they could almost look at this as a deliberate decision. Show the world a show like Boba Fett to lull them into a false sense of security, then blow their mind with a radical new direction. Unfortunately, it’s more likely that Boba Fett is the standard operating procedure and Andor is the wild deviation from the norm. The two works can sit as ends of a spectrum. As an entry in the franchise becomes more commercial or more reliant on nostalgia, it slides toward Boba Fett. When an entry tells a new story with the intent to engage viewers rather than appeal to fandom, it crawls toward Andor. The Mandalorian is closer to Andor, but it drifts towards the other side as the narrative bends over backward to pack in references. The sequel trilogy is all over the map, but it lands closer to Boba Fett with Rise of Skywalker’s weak reveals. Ironically, the film that sits closest to Boba Fett is probably Rogue One.
With a scale of measurement, the Star Wars franchise could consciously lean towards the more exciting end and end up with much better material. They could, but they won’t. Andor earned much better reviews than its predecessors, but it’s the least-viewed series from the brand since season one of The Mandalorian. The season improved in viewership over its run, but its three-episode premiere barely eclipsed Boba Fett’s first episode in terms of minutes watched. This implies that the difference in viewership was vast. Obi-Wan Kenobi beat both by a substantial margin. The fandom has spoken, and they want stuff they remember. If they don’t see a Star Wars character that they owned in action figure form as a kid, they won’t tune in. Does the Star Wars fanbase deserve Andor?
Those who enjoy the Star Wars franchise because it could be an infinite playground for engaging sci-fi and fantasy stories will still occasionally get a great story out of their fandom. Those who love the idea of loving Star Wars more than they actually like the art, on the other hand, will be enjoying the lion’s share of upcoming content. Both Andor and The Book of Boba Fett are getting a second season. Maybe, now that we’ve all seen how these stories go, viewership will move towards quality. Or, maybe the fans really only see Star Wars as a toy chest, and they’ll tolerate any garbage as long as they get to play with their favorite guys. Boba Fett and Andor are the two extremes of the franchise, and Disney is more than happy to lean away from quality if the fans let it.
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