Why Star Wars’ ‘Andor’ Looks Way Better Than ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’

Disney is in a bit of a weird place right now with Star Wars, taking a break from movies to do a bunch of Disney Plus series set in different time periods with different characters. Only a few have arrived so far, and they’ve been either hits (The Mandalorian), misses (The Book of Boba Fett) or somewhere in between (Obi-Wan Kenobi).

One very curious project coming up is Andor, and everyone has had a bit of trouble wrapping their heads around the concept of why we would need to see a prequel series based on that one guy from Rogue One who dies (like everyone else in that movie).

But the most recent trailer for Andor is…really good. And everyone was left saying “why does this look infinitely better than Obi-Wan Kenobi?” Turns out there may be a pretty clear answer for that.

As it turns out, there was a concerted effort to rely less on CGI than most Star Wars productions, where at their worst, we got things like the prequel trilogy filmed almost exclusively in front of greenscreens. Here, more location filming, and massive, massive set-building lend the show a sense of grounded realism (despite the space battles) that other series have lacked, including most recently, Obi-Wan.

Namely, one thing the show did was build an entire outdoor city they could film in:

“They built an entire city for us, like an entire city. I got lost in it,” said actress Adria Arjona to Collider. “I remember the first day that I walked on set, and I was in costume already, which was a coincidence. It just happened that was the day that they gave me the tour. I was at a costume fitting and I went over there, and I was mind blown. It was an entire outdoor city that exists. Ferrix exists. It’s not in a studio. It’s not parts of a set that we filmed in studio. It is very much a city. I keep saying three to five city blocks. I could be wrong. And I also could be maybe under, I’m not sure, I’m not good with distances.”

She figured when she was cast in a Star Wars project, she’d be in front of a green screen, but that simply wasn’t the case.

Of course, there is definitely still a lot of CG work, if you’ve seen the trailer, as some areas are larger, more sprawling cityscapes that obviously cannot be built in real life. But still, pretty much nothing here looks like dedicated green screen filming in the traditional sense at least, which is why the overall “feel” of these Andor spots have a different sort of weight to them than Obi-Wan or even parts of The Mandalorian.

The show is out in three weeks on September 21, where it will overlap a bit with She-Hulk as Disney’s Marvel and Star Wars productions ramp up and start to intersect. Looking forward to seeing it in action.

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