Andor season 2 is in the books and Luthen was right when he said it would burn brightly. The Andor finale didn’t disappoint — from Kleya’s efforts to keep Luthen out of the Empire’s hands even if it meant death, the tense race to get to her in order to get her off Coruscant, the difficult efforts to get the Rebellion to believe in info even if it came from Luthen to the final landing place for all of our characters (there was something deliciously satifying seeing where Dedra wound up for all of her efforts).
We’ve now seen enough live-action Star Wars series in enough different genres (Western, spy thriller, coming of age tale, fan service) that we can take a look and try and arrange the individual series from best to worst. It was hard when The Mandalorian debuted alongside Disney+ in 2019 to imagine Star Wars on the small screen, but now it feels right at home (even if it seems we might see fewer Disney+ series moving forward). My personal rankings have fluctuated, even in the last few days as I’ve thought about putting together this list.
7. The Book of Boba Fett
I like all the series on this list … with the exception of this one. It says something that the best episodes of this series are basically episodes of The Mandalorian with Boba Fett completely sidelined. As cool as it was to finally get to see Boba Fett be a bad ass, this series struggled to assert itself as essential in Star Wars lore. It’s fair to say we really didn’t need to see Boba take his place as the major domo of Tatooine, that just seeing him in season 2 of The Mandalorian was enough. Or at the very least we could have flopped things and taken his story here and condensed it into a sidequest arc as part of another season of The Mandalorian.
6. The Acolyte
This series had its ups and its downs. It brought us to a heretofore minimally explored era of Star Wars lore, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the series. While it was exciting that it had relatively little ties to the Skywalker Saga, that excitement made it feel somewhat out of place when a known character such as Ki-Adi-Mundi was jammed in there. The series really explored the fallibility of the Jedi in away that only Luke Skywalker himself scratched the surface of in The Last Jedi, which I’m not sure how I feel about. But as Obi-Wan says in Revenge of the Sith, only a Sith deals in absolutes. So even the Jedi can’t be completely good all the time. The series featured some of the most amazing lightsaber fights in the history of Star Wars and it was heartbreaking to see Osha learn the truth of Sol’s actions, but overall the series failed to hook me in the way other Star Wars media traditionally has.
5. Skeleton Crew
I actually really enjoyed this series, so finishing fifth isn’t so much a comment on its quality as much as the competition it’s up against. Skeleton Crew was designed for kids in a way that really nothing else in the Disney era has been, but it was still also enjoyable for adults as well. The coming of age story featuring action, adventure, mystery, tragedy and found family felt right at home in the galaxy far, far away. Jude Law delivered a compelling performance as Jod, playing him with enough shades of grey that we never really knew whether he was fully a bad guy or still had some good in him. The kids also all had their moment to shine, including Wim getting to hold the lightsaber like a true Jedi in the finale. As I said in my review of the finale, there was little to no filler, and each episode left me feeling fulfilled and like I got what I needed. I think the old axiom of there being too much of a good thing is true and Jon Watts and Christopher Ford were wise not to let Skeleton Crew fall into the trap that many streaming shows do in taking advantage of not being confined by the traditional TV time slot strictures, often to their own detriment.
4. Ahsoka
I understand the criticism that some had for the first few episodes where Rosario Dawson appeared to not be giving much emotion to the role, however, I think that was a very intentional choice and a continuation of the journey Ahsoka has been on since leaving the Jedi Order in The Clone Wars. Ahsoka appears to have some former of survivor’s guilt, blaming herself for “abandoning” Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen in full Clone Wars armor) and assigning herself some blame for what he became. The series’ fifth episode, “Shadow Warrior” uses the World Between Worlds to examine this, delivering a delicious bit of fan service that sees SkyGuy teach Snips one final lesson and free her from her bonds in the same way Vader did Obi-Wan in the Obi-Wan Kenobi finale. The series brought back Grand Admiral Thrawn, showed the cracks in the foundation of the New Republic and left us in an interesting spot where Ahsoka and her padawan Sabine Wren swap places with the lost Ezra Bridger, who now could wind up training the son of his own master, Kanan Jarrus. It felt strange that none of our original trilogy heroes — Luke, Leia, Chewy, Han — took a serious interest in the potential return of Thrawn, but seeing all the Rebels characters in live-action was a trip and I’m excited to see the all-out war being promised for season 2.
3. Obi-Wan Kenobi
Not everyone loved Obi-Wan Kenobi, but I admit Kenobi is my favorite Star Wars character and I was left satisfied overall by Ewan McGregor’s long-awaited return to the galaxy far, far away. It was jarring to see the “perfect Jedi” so disconnected from the Force and broken at the beginning of the series, but the events that followed helped bring the Jedi Master in exile full circle and brought him to a place where he was ready to be the mentor young Luke would eventually need. More than anything else, I loved getting to see Obi-Wan forge a relationship with Leia. Obviously, we saw old Ben with Luke in A New Hope, but he and Leia never interacted before he gave up his life to let Luke, Leia, Han and Chewy escape the Death Star. Knowing that in a different timeline Obi-Wan would be akin to an uncle to Leia, it was satisfying to see them grow to trust and care for each other, with their goodbye in the finale serving to show Obi-Wan truly did care for each of Anakin and Padme’s children equally. It was also a blast to see Obi-Wan get his groove back while rescuing Leia on Nur before he bested Vader once again in the duel in the finale. The moment where Obi-Wan briefly sees his old friend behind Vader’s mask one last time before Vader rips it away is heartbreaking for Ben but so, so good for fans who had been looking forward to seeing these two characters interact again. The character needed that absolution from what he perceived to be his fault in Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side, and whether Anakin/Vader intended for it to be a final moment of grace for someone he loved or as another stab to the heart, it set Obi-Wan free and put him on the path he needed to be on for his future destiny. Everyone might not agree, but I personally would love to see a second season of Obi-Wan Kenobi, perhaps bringing some closure to the hanging thread of his former love Duchess Satine’s “nephew,” who was last seen getting knocked out on Mandalore but hasn’t appeared in any other Star Wars media since.
2. The Mandalorian
The Mandalorian came at a pivotal point for Star Wars. It not only debuted alongside Disney+, introducing The Volume and proving Star Wars could work on the small screen, but served as a palate cleanser for those dissatisfied by The Rise of Skywalker, which came out about a month later in 2019. The Mandalorian was a phenomenon in its first season, introducing the world to Baby Yoda, driving subscribers to Disney’s fledgling streaming service. The second season followed with more integration of legacy characters, specifically Bo-Katan Kryze and Ahsoka Tano in two of the series’ better episodes, as well as the legendary Boba Fett, setting the bounty hunter up for his own series mentioned above. But, season 2 saved the best for last, introducing Luke Skywalker himself into the action in the finale, single-handedly destroying a cadre of dark troopers in a manner reminiscent of his father in Rogue One and taking Grogu off to begin his training. After serving as the best part of Book of Boba Fett and reuniting Din and Grogu, season 3 certainly felt less essential, but it did have a fun episode where Lizzo got to freak out like the rest of us over Grogu and had us all wanting Din and Bo to get together to give Grogu the family he deserves. And now The Mandalorian will have the chance to reset the Star Wars universe once again, bringing the franchise back to the big screen with The Mandalorian and Grogu in 2026.
1. Andor
Andor is probably the closest thing to a prestige drama Star Wars has to offer. Tony Gilroy crafted what has been the most critically acclaimed addition to the Star Wars canon during the Disney era, showing us the evolution of Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor from a thief looking to make ends meet to the true rebel we meet in Rogue One. Andor developed a rich, tense tapestry within the Star Wars universe without ever resorting to using Vader, Palpatine, any Jedi or even a lightsaber. It gave us Kino Loy’s famous monologue, Dedra and Syril’s creepy romance, Luthen’s masterful manipulation, Mon’s rousing rebel yell, the star-crossed romance of Cassian and Bix and the origin story for Cassian and K-2’s partnership. It was the most grounded Star Wars has ever been, but felt like it belonged in the canon. We knew how it was going to end, with the main character’s fate already written, yet Andor had us invested until the very last chapter. We see Cassian do some of the things he talks about in his famous Rogue One speech, we see the toll it took on him, Bix, Luthen, Kleya, Mon and even on people on the other side like Syril and Dedra. We get to see the evil of the Empire from a ground level and how it can change and shatter lives and inspire people to new heights they never imagined. It was the best thing Star Wars has produced in a long time and it is a masterpiece that needs to be appreciated.
May the Force be with you!
