Star Wars: Andor, the prequel series to Rouge One has been the center of critical acclaim since the very beginning of it with many even deeming it to be one of the best shows this year has witnessed so far. And recently, Andor has managed to bag two major nominations for the Critics’ Choice Awards as well, a big feat for the franchise.
However, the categories the show has been nominated for might just be a wake-up call for the franchise to introduce darker, more grave content, and maybe take into consideration steering toward the direction of more R-rated projects. After all, embracing change is always a good thing.
Andor Gets Nominated for 2 Critics’ Choice Awards
Directed by Tony Gilroy, Star Wars: Andor was recently announced to have been nominated for two Critics’ Choice Awards, one for Best Drama Series and the other for Best Actor in a Drama.
Set five years prior to the events that unfolded in Gareth Edwards’ spin-off movie Rouge One (2016) and the original Star Wars film, A New Hope (1977), Andor is a prequel series that explores the journey of Cassian Andor and how his life was before he became the zealous rebel that the audience is introduced to in Rouge One.
With Deigo Luna as Cassian leading the sci-fi/adventure series, along with Stellan Skarsgård’s Luthen Rael, Denise Gough‘s Dedra Meero, Fiona Shaw’s Maarva Andor, and Adria Arjona’s Bix Caleen, Andor is the fourth live-action series in the franchise of the galaxy world.
The Disney+ series’ first episode aired earlier this year on September 21, with its twelfth episode being its last, thereby concluding the first season. Fortunately enough for fans, Gilroy confirmed that they could expect season 2 somewhere during 2024.
However, as much of a great accomplishment as it is for the show to nab two nominations for CCA, the categories themselves speak volumes about how the franchise needs to address the elephant in the room – it’s high time that Star Wars narrows down its target audience to a much more mature age group.
Why the Star Wars Franchise Needs to Explore A Much Darker Side
No matter how gritty and jam-packed with insurrection Andor, or any Star Wars film/show for that matter might be, at its very core, the franchise, in its entirety, has always pervaded a familial aura with its projects catering to all kinds of audience, right from children in kindergarten to middle-aged people. And though that is not something worth complaining about in the least, it is also imperative to change with time.
Let’s take Andor itself as an example; with laser guns and hoverbikes, the show is no short of a spy thriller, and yet with all the espionage-ish and thrilling vibe that it gives off, it refuses to conform to even a bolder form of speech which involves the use of a curse word. In the final episode of season 1, when Shaw’s Maarva Andor is delivering her epic and inspiring monologue, she ends it by saying “Fight the Empire,” when originally the script read “F*ck the Empire.”
The aforementioned case is simply one such instance since the heart and soul of the franchise is all about family entertainment.
Moreover, the machinations of Star Wars call for a transformation, for it to shift its focus onto the creation of material that is not only darker in its essence but also more dire, calamitous even. They could at least start off with more harrowing and gory graphics for instance which could then gradually morph into content that in general portrays a much more realistic picture of reality. In simpler terms, it’s time Star Wars releases more R-rated content.
Surely, people would love to see more vindictive and grisly aspects of the otherwise family-oriented galaxy world.
Season 1 of Andor is available for streaming on Disney+.
Source: Twitter
