Warning: Contains mild SPOILERS for Andor episodes 1 and 2.character seen in Rogue One.
This period in the Star Wars timeline has proved to be fertile ground for the franchise since Disney purchased Lucasfilm. It's between the prequel and original trilogies that several high-profile stories take place, including (Rogue One aside): Obi-Wan Kenobi (9 BBY); and Star Wars Rebels (5-0 BBY), plus multiple comics, such as Darth Vader, running throughout as well. It's not difficult to see why it's so attractive to storytellers and Disney execs alike: it's close enough to the original movies to capture that same spirit and nostalgia, but with plenty of room for stories since it sees the rise of both the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance.
Andor captures both of those perfectly, getting down to a rarely-seen level of the Empire and examining its middle-management, while gradually showing the different areas of rebellion coming together. That alone makes Andor's timeline of BBY 5 (or 5 BBY, as Star Wars has usually formatted it before now) crucial, because it's both a critical turning point where the disparate rebel cells begin to coalesce, and a stage where Imperial ranks are so bloated and overconfident that it explains how they could be defeated by smaller forces. As noted in Andor episode 2, "pockets [of rebels] are fermenting," in the galaxy. While the Alliance to Restore the Republic wouldn't officially come into being until 2 BBY, with Mon Mothma's resignation from the Senate and official declaration (something Andor will likely include in some way, given the character's confirmed involvement in the series), by 5 BBY there were several factions who were not only well-known, but beginning to band together slowly but surely, and a network was forming in this year, which Andor will presumably show.
The Biggest Events In Star Wars' 5 BBY
Alongside the different rebel cells beginning to network, BBY 5 is important in start the Rebel Alliance, which again shows how it was coming together in 5 BBY.
In of Rogue One, it was also in 5 BBY that Jyn Erso was abandoned by Saw Gerrera. Though not a major event in its own right, it's an important piece of the rebel puzzle. Had Jyn stayed with Saw, then there's a good chance she wouldn't have ended up leading the fight in Rogue One itself, given Saw's own extreme position at that point (if she had even survived that long). So from 5 BBY it's possible to trace a throughline in their stories, too, that would eventually end up with the theft of the Death Star plans and a major victory against the Empire. Andor's timeline is connecting a lot of these dots, allowing it to more fully tell the story of the Rebel Alliance.
New episodes of Andor release on Wednesdays on Disney+.
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