How 'Andor' staged the first rebellion in the 'Star Wars' universe

"Star Wars" has always been about rebelling against authority, but prior to "Andor," visitors to the galaxy far, far away had never been so deeply immersed in the workings of the revolution. Zeroing in on a single character's radicalization and the effects of his actions on a community, showrunner Tony Gilroy's Disney+ series explores the nascent rebellion with a keen focus on how financially unstable and politically perilous it is for its organizers. And with returning star Diego Luna, Gilroy revisits the steely Cassian Andor, a character he helped shape in 2016's "Rogue One."

In building out this show, Gilroy was faced with a question: How do you make a prequel to a prequel? The answer was to make something wholly original. "Why would I want to do anything that anybody had done before?" he asked in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Indeed, "Andor" is unlike anything in the "Star Wars" galaxy. There are no Jedi, lightsabers or physics-defying displays of the Force. "I think there's a greater utility to our show if it works, which is that it opens a whole bunch of lanes for a whole bunch of other imaginations to come in and use this galaxy for all kinds of things," said Gilroy. "What about a three-camera comedy 'Star Wars'? People just need to be, you know, disruptive."

Just about the only visible sign that "Andor" is part of an enormously valuable intellectual property is the finale episode's post-credits scene. Previously, in a story arc that takes place