Diego Luna discusses the social commentary of his ‘Star Wars’ prequel ‘Andor’. It may be sci-fi but it’s still relevant to rebellions today.
Star Wars takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Those are literally the first words of every movie. Andor takes place before Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Yet, it’s meant to speak to modern day society, Andor star Diego Luna says.
Luna was on a Television Critics Association panel for Andor on Aug. 3. He discussed how Andor speaks to modern day issues. New episodes of Andor premiere Wednesdays on Disney+.
Cassian Andor is personal to Diego Luna
Luna played Cassian Andor in Rogue One and reprises his role in the series. The prequel begins with Cassian looking for his sister. By episode 3, the rebels start to recruit him.
“I believe a story like this can allow us to make comments and to talk about what matters to you,” Luna said. “It’s easy to say that this happened in a galaxy far, far away, therefore, I can’t reflect on my own reflection on where we’re heading and what can be done. I love that this story is about regular people, you know? It’s about you and I. It’s about us.”
Andor may show the internal spycraft that led to the rebellion against the Galactic Empire. However, Luna hopes fans look closer at how it relates to them.
“There’s a chance to make so many comments,” Luna said. “And Cassian is full of those comments, from my perspective. Just because I have to give truth to what Tony [Gilroy] writes, I bring a lot of myself to it.”
‘Andor’ shows the cost of survival
Cassian took out two attackers in the series premiere. Flashbacks also show how his culture battled for survival. Luna said the harsh conditions of Andor have parallels to modern cultures fighting for survival.
When you talk about people surviving, the judgment is different. So we’ll get to explain that. And we’ll get to show you also a community. It’s what we can, in community, do and what we are capable of if we understand our strength is in our numbers. And this show is about that. o, you get to meet all those characters.”
The show goes deeper than ‘Rogue One’
Luna said he thought about such things when he first played Cassian in Rogue One. However, that was a two hour movie. Andor is a 24 episode series so it lets him go deeper.
“It’s a complexity,” Luna said. “The complexity of a show like this and the story that Rogue One started and what makes this job so interesting. That is, you can’t leave the gray areas out when you talk about a revolution. There is so many layers.”
It’s easy to see what Luna is inferring. We watch news coverage of the war in Ukraine and there are refugees from many places. Perhaps thinking of them will give the story of Andor more resonance.
