Does 'Andor' Show A Long-term Shift Toward A More Adult Audience In ‘Star Wars’?

Star Wars

Aug 13

Star Wars has almost always been kid friendly. George Lucas always said that he had written the franchise for 12-year-olds. Although every movie in the franchise refrains from playing with kid gloves, each of them is certainly something that any reasonable parent would be completely comfortable showing a 12-year-old.

It should also be noted that two of Dave Filoni’s cartoons, The Clone Wars, and Rebels started with very kid-friendly episodes, and slowly become more adult. Whether this is Filoni wanting to make a show that would grow with its audience or Filoni’s idea of kid-friendly content changing as his kids get older is something none of us will likely ever know, there is another possibility: Filoni sees how popular the shows were with a more adult audience, and decided to change his style for them. However, Tony Gilroy, who created the show Andor, decided to skip that step and create a show that had a more adult audience in mind right from the start.

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For those who have not seen it, Andor focuses on the backstory of Cassian Andor, Diego Luna’s character from Rogue One. The show also explores characters like Mon Mothma, the rebel leader who appeared in Rogue One and Return of The Jedi. It shows how the two of them, as well as characters like Luthen Rael, made drastic sacrifices, and often did stuff that went against their morals to help build the Rebel Alliance. Cassian murders people on the street, and admits he’s firstly only helping the alliance for the money. Mon Mothma sells out members of her own family in exchange for favors that were needed to help build the alliance. Rael deals in the black market. Furthermore, many Imperials, such as Syril Karn are shown as people who are just doing their duty, as Syril makes moves that he knows will hurt his career to investigate the brutal murder of some of his colleagues. These aspects take the Rebel vs Imperial conflict from the original trilogy that was often portrayed in black and white and shows every character operating in a shade of grey.

This gives it a much more adult tone, as kids likely wouldn’t want to see their favorite heroic characters perform such cruel acts, nor would they want to know that the ‘good guys’ only had a chance because of some horrible things done by some of the supporting characters.

However, does this mean that there will be a progression to more adult storytelling? As has been mentioned, both Rebels and The Clone Wars weren’t afraid to touch on dark themes. Furthermore, The Bad Batch was a mixed bag when it came to tone, with many of the episodes focusing on Crosshair having a more adult tone. However, is this indicative of what’s to come?

Mon Mother — Image Source: Hollywood Reporter

Let’s look at the upcoming movies, of which there are three. First is a movie about Rey that will almost certainly be popular since many young fans are growing up with her as a large part of their Star Wars journey, meaning it is unlikely to be adult orientated. The second is going to be directed by Dave Filoni and will be a follow-up on shows like The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, The Book of Boba Fett, and Skeleton Crew. That one will probably be able to push the envelope a little bit more, but will almost certainly be PG-13 at its most extreme. There’s also a movie directed by James Mangold on the founding of the Jedi Order, which will likely have similar ratings. Although each of these will certainly be things that adults will find a deeper moral or political meaning that kids might miss, they will almost certainly all be made with kids in mind, meaning that we’re getting a bit of a ‘no’ here.

As for shows, we have Young Jedi Adventures which will be aimed at preschoolers, and thusly a ‘no’ for the aim of adult audiences. Ahsoka is hard to place, given its ties to Rebels, but its space in live-action might indicate it has adults more front of mind. Skeleton Crew is being called a coming-of-age story, and since it features kids as protagonists, it will likely have at least some focus on entertaining children. Given that The Acolyte has indicated some content that may be very adult, the whole show could have a more adult tone. The Lando show will star Donald Glover, and be a follow-up to Solo, indicating it will likely try to maintain a balance in entertaining kids and adults. Further seasons of Andor, The Mandalorian, and The Bad Batch have also been announced, and will likely continue pandering towards their established audiences.

As has been seen, some Star Wars shows can have a stronger focus on an adult audience, but the majority of shows seem to be focusing on maintaining an audience of all ages. However, adult fans will certainly have a few shows that focus on them as the audience, with shows like The Bad Batch giving out a few episodes with a more adult tone.

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