Andor season 2: Disney Plus release date prediction, likely cast, and more news on the acclaimed Star Wars show's return

Andor season 2's release is drawing ever closer, but it'll still be a number of months before the critically-acclaimed Star Wars series is back on our screens. It's been over two years since its first chapter debuted on Disney Plus, so the wait has certainly been a long one. But, as we head into the final third of 2024, its absence won't be felt for much longer.

Ahead of Andor making its grand return, you'll want the latest intel on its second installment. In this guide, we've rounded up every piece of official news (and the odd rumor or seven) for you to catch up on. That includes our release date prediction, season 2's likely cast, plot threads it'll need to pick up from its forebear, and more about the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story prequel show. Major spoilers for Andor season 1 follow ,so proceed at your own risk (or read our spoiler-free Andor season 1 review instead). 

Andor season 2 release date prediction

Andor season 2 doesn't have a release date yet. The only official information we have is that it won't arrive this year, with Disney confirming Andor season 2 wasn't part of Disney Plus' 2024 line-up last December. Still, with principal photography wrapping in February, aside from its lengthy post-production phase, Andor's second and final chapter isn't too far away now.

So, when do we think it'll land on Disney Plus? Earlier this year, Stellan Skarsgård, who plays Luthen Rael in Andor, told GamesRader/Total Film that he expects it to "be out towards the end of the year or early next". The latter is pretty much nailed on now, too, with Star Wars: Skeleton Crew set to race onto one of the world's best streaming services on December 3 (US) and December 4 (UK and Australia).

Our best guess, then, is that Andor season 2 will debut in January 2025. That's mainly based on lead star Diego Luna telling Rotten Tomatoes that "you'll have to wait for the beginning of next year" for confirmation about some big cast rumors (more on these shortly). With Marvel set to release Daredevil: Born Again on Disney Plus next Marc, Disney won't want two of its biggest 2025 shows to clash, which is another reason why we believe Andor will return just after New Year's Day.

Andor season 2 trailer: is there one?

No, there isn't. We don't expect a teaser will be released until around October or November, either, which is when Disney/Lucasfilm will start to ramp up their promotional campaign for the hit series' return.

For what it's worth, a short video – comprising some behind-the-scenes shots and actual season 2 footage – was shown exclusively to D23 Expo 2024 attendees in early August. While there wasn't much to glean from the footage shown to the event's audience, it did confirm that at least two key characters from Rogue One are part of season 2's cast. Speaking of which...

Andor season 2 cast: confirmed and rumored

Full spoilers follow for Andor season 1.

Here's who we expect to return in Andor season 2: 

• Diego Luna as Cassian Andor
• Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma
• Stellan Skarsgård as Luthen Rael
• Denise Gough as Dedra Meero
• Kyle Soller as Syril Karn
• Adria Arjona as Bix Caleen
• Faye Marsay as Vel Sartha
• Varada Sethu as Cinta Kaz
• Elizabeth Dulau as Kleya Marki
• Anton Lesser as Major Partagaz
• Duncan Pow as Ruescott Melshi

Speaking to Empire, Andy Serkis also hinted – or, more accurately, didn't deny – that his season 1 character Kino Loy will live to fight another day. Chatting to SlashFilm, Gilroy also teased "we didn't see him die", so Kino may still be alive.

As for newcomers, Lucasfilm is yet to officially announce new season 2 stars, though Spanish site Levante (thanks to StarWarsNewsNet for the find) claims it spotted Benjamin Bratt (Poker Face) when filming took place in València. This has led fans to assume he’s bagged himself a role in outer space.

Andor hasn’t gone particularly big on cameos from legacy Star Wars characters, either, but its first outing contained appearances from characters we've seen in other projects. For one, we already know Rogue One soldier Ruescott Melshi is back, with Gilroy confirming as much to Deadline. Imperial bigwig Wullf Yularen (Malcolm Sinclair), who dates all the way back to Episode IV: A New Hope, and extremist Rebel Saw Gerrera (played by Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker) also featured in season 1, so we also expect this duo to return.

As for other Rogue One characters who'll feature, K-2SO – the Imperial security droid who's Cassian’s mechanical BFF in Rogue One – was shown off in the D23 Expo-exclusive teaser. After reports emerged that Rogue One villain Orson Krennic would appear in some capacity in Andor season 2, the same teaser confirmed Ben Mendelsohn will reprise his role as the Galactic Empire's Director of Advanced Weapons Research. We wouldn’t be surprised if they’re joined by more familiar faces from Rogue One, too. Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), an Empire pilot who defects to the Rebellion and Tivik (Daniel Mays), the Rebel spy Cassian kills early on in Rogue One, could both cross paths with the nascent Rebel Alliance. 

As for more potential actor appearances, Gilroy (via SlashFilm) and Luna (per The Pop Verse and Rotten Tomatoes) have teased that other characters seen in Rogue One may pop up. Which ones do, though, remains to be seen.

Star Wars: Andor season 2 plot speculation

Major spoilers follow for Andor season 1.

Andor season 2's plot brief hasn't been revealed, but there's plenty we can speculate on in the meantime.

Firstly, while season 1 mapped out 12 months in Cassian Andor’s life, Andor season 2 is spread across the four years leading up to Rogue One. That means this 12-episode season will be split into four installments – comprising three episodes apiece – that each depict a 12-month period covering a pivotal few days of the Star Wars timeline (check out our guide to how to watch the Star Wars movies in order for more on where it'll be set). Gilroy also revealed to Collider that "a great deal has happened in the interim [between season 1's finale and the start of season 2]", so expect some plot exposition to be laid out in season 2's opening episode.

"When we come back, it’ll be literally like a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday," Gilroy told Deadline. "And then, we’ll jump a year, and then it’ll be, like, four or five days, and then we’ll jump a year, and then there’ll be another four or five days, and then we jump a year, and be another four or five days. Our last block is the last three days before Rogue One. So, the last shot will be walking into Rogue One. So, you can imagine that we have to do a lot of interlacing at the end, with the [Star Wars] calendar."

We know, then, the beginning and end of Andor season 2 – but everything in between remains something of a mystery. Well, aside from other tidbits that Gilroy, Luna, and other individuals have teased.

For one, Gilroy told the Writer Guild of America East (see the X/Twitter post above) that he doesn't think he's done "anything as important" or "big before" as the show's sophomore outing. Considering the size and scope of its predecessor, it sounds like season 2 will be even more impressive from narrative, visual, thematic perspectives.

"The beauty of this show is that even though sometimes you know what's going to happen, it hits you as though you’re learning it for the first time," star Diego Luna further elaborated in a discussion with Entertainment Weekly (EW). "You are witnessing this from the inside, from the personal perspective. You get to live it with the characters, or through the characters. Therefore, it hits you differently. It’s not about the events, necessarily, but about the choices made and the risks these characters are taking. It’s because you know them that you care like you didn’t care before."

So, what did the season 1 finale set up for its successor? In it, Cassian Andor briefly returned to his home planet Ferrix for the funeral of his adoptive mother Maarva. After she posthumously incited an anti-Imperial riot (via a recorded hologram), he managed to rescue ex-girlfriend Bix Caleen from Imperial torture and convince morally flexible Rebel Alliance kingpin Luthen Rael not to kill him. Now that the previously ambivalent Cassian has a reason to take the fight to the Empire, it looks like he’ll be a fully fledged member of the Alliance next time we see him.

"Cassian’s commitment to the cause is not in doubt," Gilroy explained to Polygon. "If it was about him becoming a revolutionary, then the second half is about him becoming a leader."

Although her name isn’t in the title, Andor was as much about Mon Mothma as its eponymous antihero. In season 2, the character has to evolve from a respected senator helping fund the Rebels on the sly, to the leader we see making pivotal decisions on Yavin IV in Rogue One. So, you can expect her character to evolve further, such as her needing to turn a blind eye to the activities of the Rebel Alliance's operatives (like the aforementioned Rael) who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty.

"If your business is based on paranoia and secrecy and death, how do you expand your business?" Gilroy asked in EW. "How do you go public? How do you go wide? What happens to all the original gangsters and the hardcore people who built that road? What happens to them, and how do they integrate with [a legitimate Rebel Alliance]?"

Speaking of Yavin IV, Gilroy let slip to Collider that we'll be paying a visit to the Rebel base's headquarters soon. That's just one of "five different planets" we'll visit, too, Luna confirmed in his D23 Expo chat with Rotten Tomatoes.

Elsewhere, Cassian will also be doing his best to stay ahead of Dedra Meero, the ambitious Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) agent who became obsessed with catching him. Matters may be a bit more complicated, however, now that she owes a debt to disgraced police officer Syril Karn, who saved her from rioters on Ferrix in season 1's finale. 

After their surprisingly close encounter in a broom cupboard, Karn – the most intriguing, multi-layered character in the show – surely has a big part to play in the pursuit of Andor, the man who effectively ruined his career.

"The end of season 1 is so perfect for Syril," told Esquire. "He’s kept Cassian as this talisman that’s giving him fuel to stay alive, basically. It’s a receptacle to put his frustration and aggression. And he’s still living at home, so he doesn’t have any friends or a therapist. He doesn’t have a dog. He also knows that he’s right.

"Then, through his relationship with Dedra, being seen by her and feeling seen, that’s a massive indication. And so this is like, ‘Wow, it’s [Cassian’s] mom’s funeral, it’s all coming together again. It’s at the place where I f***ed up last time. I can put this right'. He sees this opportunity to swoop in. It’s not even that he views it as a hero moment. I think it’s just his obsession with Cassian, that starts to extend itself to Dedra, because she’s involved in the same obsession. He recognizes that the two of them are more powerful together than they are separately."

Given Andor season 2 directly leads into Rogue One (and, by proxy, Star Wars Episode IV), we'll eventually see the Rebel Alliance learn about the Death Star and the Empire's plan to use it against its critics. In the post-credits scene of season 1's final episode, we learned that Cassian, Kino, and other Narkina 5 prisoners had been building components for the Death Star's lazer array, meaning they had a hand in its creation. 

"It [the Death Star's construction] will still be the looming threat," Gilroy told The Hollywood Reporter. "Rogue One is all about discovering what it is. [Season two is] about who picks up the final breadcrumbs that lead to the beginning of Rogue One. In Rogue One, Cassian goes to the Ring of Kafrene to meet Tivik, who is from Saw’s group, and he says 'Oh my God, it’s a planet killer'. Cassian knows some shit, but he’s looking for answers. So we’ll [cover] the breadcrumbs that lead up to that. But we have a situation where Cassian will never know that what he was building is actually the machine that’s going to kill him."

Amid all the intergalactic and political warfare, one seemingly forgotten plot thread continues to dangle in the background: has Cassian given up on finding his sister, which is what set Andor's events in motion in its premiere?

"I don't think so," Luna teased to Collider. "I don't think it's over in Rogue One, because I see that as one thing. It's like the feeling, it's one of those things that kind of follow every decision you make, or never letting [go] anymore, not again. That kind of thing. And I think that's behind the decision of that last mission, that suicide mission in Rogue One. That's for her. That's for Maarva, that's for his people, for his community. I love the arc that Tony has built, and the arc ends in Rogue One, not in season 2. I think it's going to be quite amazing to watch Rogue One after you see season 2."

What to watch while you wait for Andor season 2

With Andor season 2's release date still TBD, Star Wars fans new and old may want to pass the time with other TV shows set in Lucasfilm's iconic galaxy far, far away. If that's you, stick one of these series (two in particular are considered to be some of the best Disney Plus shows ever made) on to pass the time:

Andor season 1

Tom Power

Alright, you might think I'm cheating here, but what better way is there to prepare for Andor season 2 than by watching its predecessor? In my view, it's the best Star Wars TV show on Disney Plus – and that's not just because it foregoes lightsabers, Force wielders, or anything Jedi and Sith-related. It's compellingly dramatic, is full of political paranoia and thrilling action sequences, has a cast at the top of their game, and some absolutely gorgeous shots and visuals that wouldn't look out of place on the big screen, let alone Disney's primary streaming platform. Stick in on your watchlist ASAP.

• Watch Andor season 1 on Disney Plus

The Mandalorian

Tom Power

Billed as a space western, and set between Star Wars Episode VI and Episode VII, The Mandalorian sees Pedro Pascal's lone gunslinger becomes a surrogate father to 'baby Yoda', a juvenile of the legendary Jedi's alien race, who is apparently vital importance to a Machiavellian scheme concocted by the Galactic Empire's remnants. It's more kid-friendly than Andor is, which makes it entertaining in a completely different way. Season 3 is the weakest entry so far, but its first two installments are well worth investing in. The duo will make the leap to the silver screen in 2026, too, with The Mandalorian and Grogu - the first Star Wars movie in, by the time it's released, seven years!

• Watch The Mandalorian on Disney Plus

Star Wars: Ahsoka

Tom Power

A sequel to animated show Star Wars: Rebels that runs parallel to events in The Mandalorian, this live-action series sees the fan-favorite Togruta Force wielder reunite with her Rebels allies to thwart the return of a menacing Empire general. Narratively, Star Wars: Ahsoka can be sluggish in places and some of its cast performances come across as somewhat wooden (read more on the positive things I had to say in my spoiler-free Ahsoka review). It picks up as the show progresses, however, and the mysteries at its heart are certainly engrossing enough. You can stream all eight episodes now and then read my Star Wars: Ahsoka ending explainer to see how it sets up the recently confirmed Ahsoka season 2.

• Watch Ahsoka season 1 on Disney Plus

For more Star Wars coverage, read our guide on all of the new Star Wars movies and TV shows that are in the works. Alternatively, get the lowdown on The Mandalorian season 4, or find out why Star Wars should learn from Andor and stop making Disney Plus shows that are so obsessed with the Jedi.