Andor’s post-credits scene solves a 17-year-old Star Wars mystery
Andor has a post-credits scene. Did it need one?
In Star Wars movies, you never expect a post-credits scene. However, since the end of The Mandalorian Season 2 in 2020, post-credits scenes in Star Wars TV shows have become slightly more commonplace. Although Obi-Wan Kenobi didn’t have one, The Book of Boba Fett had a post-credits scene. Now, Andor Season 1 has a post-credits scene, too.
But did it need one? Here’s what happens in the Andor post-credits scene and how it sets up the most famous Star Wars thing ever.
Spoilers ahead for Andor Episode 12.
Andor’s post-credits scene explained
After a long and winding road, the story brings Cassian (Diego Luna) back together with Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård). Season 1 ends with the tease that Andor Season 2 will probably focus on Cassian and Luthen spying and doing cool stuff for the Rebel Alliance. After that, the credits roll.
The final placement of Death Star’s Superlaser in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
And then, at the very end, after all the credits, Andor reveals that those strange cross-shaped objects from the Narkina 5 prison are, in fact, part of the very structure that comprises the parts of the Death Star’s Superlaser. Interestingly, the scene shows what appear to be droids fusing together these pieces in space, which kind of underminds why human labor was needed to make these parts in the first place. Are these spider droids bad at hooking together heavy pipes? Are they only useful for welding things in zero gravity?
The final shot pulls back to reveal all of the Death Star, with its Superlaser-planet-killer parts suspended in space still under construction. Will we see the Death Star in Andor Season 2? Who knows. But of course, because Rogue One deals with Cassian Andor risking everything to steal the Death Star plans, the Season 1 Andor post-credits scene is making a very strong link: Cassian was forced to build the very thing that killed him.
Andor’s post-credits scene fixes Revenge of the Sith
Tarkin, Palpatine, and Vader watch as the Death Star is built, 14 years before the events of Andor.
If we’re splitting hairs on nitty-gritty canon stuff, the Season 1 Andor post-credits scene does connect the ending of Revenge of the Sith with the Death Star construction in Rogue One. When Darth Vader and the Emperor observe the Death Star being built at the end of Revenge of the Sith, it's mostly a skeletal version, and its main planet-killing weapon is incomplete. In Rogue One, we learn the Empire uses kyber crystals (the same stuff used in lightsabers) to power the Superlaser, which is the key piece of the puzzle that makes the Death Star actually work. Andor’s post-credits sequence basically shows us that part of the Death Star waiting for its kyber crystals and reveals there are lots of other little parts that comprise each of these components.
Although the Death Star post-credits scene in Andor feels a bit superfluous and teases something we’re already very familiar with, it does serve as a nice metaphor for the entire series. Narratively, Andor has demonstrated that the mosaic of the Star Wars story looks very different when you zoom in on one or two specific aspects. The stories of Cassian, Kino, Dedra, Bix, Luthen, Syril, Vel, Cinta, and Mon Mothma don’t resemble the heroics of Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, Luke Skywalker, and Leia Organa. But then again, the small parts of the Death Star that Cassian built with his bare hands don’t resemble the Death Star, either.
Andor Season 1 is streaming now on Disney+.
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