The best Andor recap out there is, weirdly, the official one

Like just about everything in the television sphere these days, Andor’s second season is showing up a bit later than originally projected. Between Disney cutting back on production to focus on quality, which naturally spread its release calendar out a bit, and delays needed to renegotiate the contracts for the Writers’ Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA members, it’s been two and a half years since Andor premiered.

Even Polygon’s writers were looking for a refresher on the series before we sat down to watch season 2, and a few of us independently arrived at the same conclusion: Whatever editor put together the official 15-minute Andor season 1 recap on the Star Wars YouTube account really knocked it out of the park, cutting dialogue, music, and footage together in ways that highlight Andor’s most powerful themes. Call it the inevitable result of combining good writing, great acting, and the lure of Star Wars’ legendary iconography, it’s still remarkably moving.

What else should you know about Andor’s return? Well, the core cast is back — including Diego Luna (Cassian), Stellen Skarsgård (Luthen), Genevieve O’Reilly (Mon Mothma), and even Forest Whitaker as the inexplicably charismatic violent weirdo anarchist leader Saw Gerrera — and adding Benjamin Bratt, who takes on the role of Bail Organa, Princess Leia’s adoptive dad, from Jimmy Smits.

And the show has an unusual roll out that will be getting you in on the drama quickly. Disney Plus will premiere three episodes of the show’s 12-episode season every week until the series finale on May 13.