The Revolution Starts Now: A Shot-by-Shot Breakdown of the First Full Trailer for “Andor: A Star Wars Story” Season 2

This morning saw the (very welcome) surprise release of the first full trailer for the second season of Lucasfilm’s live-action Disney+ series Andor: A Star Wars Story (retitled from Star Wars: Andor), so let’s jump right in with a shot-by-shot breakdown of this incredibly exciting preview.

Shot #1 - The camera follows from a low angle behind Cassian Andor (played once again– and probably for the final time– by Diego Luna) is dressed in a cape as he walks through a breezeway on what looks to be an upper-class planet, though we don’t know which one. I’m going to take a wild stab at it and say Chandrila, just because of some of the stuff we see later on in the trailer. Cassian is carrying a black case with markings on it. A woman strolls past him walking some dog-like creatures, and other people mill about in the background.

The song is “The Revolution Starts…" by American singer-songwriter Steve Earle, off his 2004 album The Revolution Starts Now. Earle is well-known for his outspoken political views, making his music a perfect choice for this rebelliously charged ad. The trend of using Earthly pop music for Star Wars trailers started with Skeleton Crew last year, although that cover of “Major Tom (Coming Home)" by Peter Schilling was translated into the fictional language of Huttese.

Shot #2 - Explosions on the city steps of the same planet (note the identical architecture). Imperial stormtroopers return fire as their attackers– presumably rebels– run around chaotically in the foreground.

Shot #3 - Similar to the first shot but closer and at a slighter higher angle, Cassian walks through a different location– could be an Imperial hallway. Now he’s wearing a tan-and-brown jacket with lots of straps.

Shot #4 - Sparks fly as a generator (?) shorts out on the streets of another unidentified planet. It’s difficult to say who the character in the foreground reacting to it is. There’s writing above the doorway that’s tough to make out as well

Shot #5 - The pattern repeats. Closer shot, higher angle. Cassian walks through another hallway– this time with a more cramped, brutalist style of architecture– wearing a hooded windbreaker. There’s an electronic control panel on the right-side wall. My guess is this is the Rebel Alliance base on Yavin IV.

Shot #6 - Although maybe I’ll take that guess back, because now Cassian’s got his hood up and we see that it’s a longer duster he’s wearing. He fires his blaster at an Imperial officer in a large, warehouse-type room with lots of overhead lights. The officer takes a hit in his right shoulder and starts to go down before we cut away.

Shot #7 - The pattern breaks! Now the camera is tracking Cassian from the front as he walks through the shipyard of what is definitely the Yavin IV rebel base– note the peak of a Massassi Temple in the background. Now he’s wearing an outfit that more closely resembles what we’re used to seeing him in. Rebel pilots, technicians, and other soldiers walk through the airfield around him. We can see X-wings starfighters both on the ground and in the sky.

Cassian: “We’re in a war."

Shot #8 - In a two-shot, Cassian meets up-close with someone who we only see in silhouette from behind. They’re in a darkened room with light barely streaming in through the paned windows.

Cassian: “You want to fight?"

Shot #9 - The camera zooms above a field of grain as Cassian (?) runs toward the mostly empty background. There is a structure and a mountain visible in the distance. The sky is cloudy.

Shot #10 - Five stormtroopers fire after Cassian (?) as he flees them. There’s another circular structure and some yurt-like buildings behind them.

Shot #11A - Inside the cockpit of a ship piloted by Cassian– I’ve seen theories that this is a TIE Avenger from the 1990s computer game Star Wars: TIE Fighter. I believe this is another, differently colored jacket he’s wearing.

Cassian: “Or you want to win?"

Shot #11B - The camera pans over to reveal Cassian’s hand on the trigger of the ship’s control stick.

Shot #12A - A torpedo launches from the TIE Avenger (?) toward a ground vehicle traveling down a path through the same field of grain. This leads me to believe it might not actually be Cassian running in shot #9, but it’s hard to say.

Shot #12B - The camera is “attached" to the TIE as it flies toward an Imperial transport that reminds me of the juggernaut hijacked by Din Djarin and Migs Mayfeld in The Mandalorian season 2 episode “The Believer."

Shot #12C - The transport explodes in a flash of orange and the TIE, with camera still attached, flies right through the ensuing smoke.

Title card: “THE FIRST SEASON OF ANDOR WAS HAILED BY CRITICS EVERYWHERE"

Shot #13 - Medium shot slowly pushing in on Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) as he looks almost directly at the camera. Could be standing in his base.

Title card: “‘EMOTIONAL, THRILLING AND EXCITING’ - THE WRAP"

Shot #14 - Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) is at a party on what I believe to be her home planet of Chandrila. She turns around to face the camera as revelers dance behind her. There’s moss hanging from the ceiling.

Title card: “‘CONFIDENT AND SOPHISTICATED’ - THE ATLANTIC"

Shot #15 - Starts out of focus, then sharpens to reveal Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgard) looking out through smoke against a dark background.

Title card: “‘TRULY PHENOMENAL STORYTELLING’ - THE VERGE"

Shot #16 - A hooded woman walks toward the camera and is joined by Cassian, who presses a button on a control in his hand, triggering an explosion behind them, lighting up a facility with multiple levels and staircases. The actress didn’t look familiar to me, but I have been told it’s Adria Arjona as Bix Caleen. I guess she looks different with her hair covered up.

Shot #17 - Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) looks out a set of windows at a misty landscape and grins. He’s wearing his trademark white Imperial Security Bureau uniform.

Krennic: [chuckles]

Shot #18 - The editor wants to trick us into thinking this is the following shot, but it’s in an entirely different location. We’re behind Krennic now on the bridge of an Imperial Star Destroyer as he looks out at the nearly completed Death Star. The battle station’s superlaser is still under construction as we saw in season 1’s post-credits sequence.

Krennic: “What a swell party this is."

Shot #19A - There’s a dead body in a flight suit on the ground at Saw Gerrera’s insurgent base on another misty planet. We’re looking out through the door into the base’s own airfield.

Shot #19B - The camera pushes in past the corpse while in the background four black-and-white-colored X-wings and a transport ship take off into the sky.

Title card: “‘A PRESTIGE DRAMA WITH SEARING ACTION AND EMMY-WORTHY PERFORMANCES’ - ROLLING STONE"

Shot #20A: Cassian lines up a shot through the scope of a blaster rifle. We’re back on the same planet from the first couple of shots in the trailer. There are bodies on the ground behind him.

Shot #20B: Cassian lowers the rifle when an explosion goes off in the background, sending stormtroopers flying. Now we can see the troopers are on the same stairs from shot #2.

Shot #21: Another actress I am struggling to recognize, but it might be Elizabeth Dulau as Kleya Marki, grabs Cassian next to a window. It’s raining outside, and we see a cityscape in the background. Could be Coruscant. There’s something odd on the windowsill, almost like little origami starships. I almost wonder if this is Eedy Karn’s apartment, though I don’t think we ever saw a window that big in her living room.

Shot #22: Cuts closer as Kleya (?) grabs Cassian by the lapels and dramatically looks him straight in the eyes.

Shot #23: I’m pretty sure this is Brasso (Joplin Sibtain) getting dragged away by stormtroopers on the grain planet. Numerous huge silos are visible in the background.

Title card: “THIS SPRING"

Shot #24: Cool! An elite squad of troopers make their way through the same hallway as shot #5, which means it’s in all likelihood not Yavin IV. They’ve got some sweet gear, goggles, and rifles pointed ahead of them as they advance toward the camera, and they’re accompanied by an armored officer.

Shot #25: Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) peers out through a window in what is presumably the ISB offices. We can see more troopers in the background. Dedra leans back and closes her eyes in frustration.

Shot #26: In close-up, Krennic raises his eyebrows and smiles at someone (could it be Mon Mothma?) who is only visible in silhouette and slightly off-camera. I believe the out-of-focus character on the left side of the background to be Davo Sculdun (Richard Dillane), the Chandrilan oligarch who agreed to help Mon launder her money in season 1. There are also ISB officers visible behind Krennic.

Title card: “THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED SERIES"

Shot #27: The TIE Avenger (?) is back, and now it’s blasting away at a row of stormtroopers in a hangar bay.

Shot #28: More dancing at the party on Chandrila (?), but this time Mon herself is joining in, wearing the same flowing orange cape as in shot #14.

Shot #29: Wider shot of the big crowd dancing and jubilantly thrusting their hands in the air. Almost looks like a wedding… oh wait, Lieda Mothma was set to have an arranged marriage with Sculdun’s son, wasn’t she?

Title card: “RETURNS"

Shot #30A: The camera is similarly “attached" to an X-wing starfighter as it hovers in space above a planet. In front of it is the same insurgent transport we saw take off in shot #19. There’s an R5-unit droid in the X-wing’s astromech socket.

Shot #30B: Both the transport and the X-wing jump into hyperspace.

Shot #31: At a party on Coruscant. The camera is behind Mon Mothma and her husband Perrin Fertha (Alastair Mackenzie) as they arrive and are greeted by Davo. A camera droid hovers in front of them and we can see the city-planet’s skyline through the windows. This must be where Mon meets Krennic.

Shot #32: Oh hey, it’s our old pal K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), the reprogrammed Imperial security droid from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Here, K lifts up his head in a dimly lit location. The big question is whether K will have the same origin story he was given in the canon Star Wars: Rogue One - Cassian & K-2SO comic book from 2017.

Shot #33: From behind, six stormtroopers run toward an Imperial hangar. I bet this is the same action sequence as in shot #27.

Shot #34: Cassian and Bix hug, reunited after the events of the first-season finale. Oh and hey, they’re standing under the chassis of that stolen TIE Avenger.

Shot #35: A black-armored Imperial riot control trooper (or someone disguised as one) lowers his visor and readies his shield as an aggressively unruly crowd chants behind him. There’s also someone in a blue top in the foreground and another trooper with a moustache and a goggled helmet behind him.

Shot #36: A tank or digging machine with bright headlights tears through the ground as it races toward the camera at nighttime. It looks like the same location as in shot #4.

Shot #37: Here’s Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) running through a security checkpoint toward the camera and looking concerned. There are several black-uniformed imperial officers behind him.

Shot #38: Another editing trick where we are meant to think this is what Syril is looking at, but once again I don’t think it matches. A fire has broken out on the same city street from #36 above, and combatants are running every which way.

Shot #39: I think this is Ruescott Melshi (Duncan Pow), who escaped from the prison on Narkina-5 with Cassian in season 1 and later dies on Scarif in Rogue One. Here he’s using a doorjamb as cover as he wields a blaster. Explosions and laser blasts are going off to the right behind the door.

Shot #40: I’m honestly not sure who this is, so I’m not going to even venture a guess. Regardless, she pulls a blaster on a crowd in a sterile environment as people dressed as ordinary citizens duck to get out of the way.

Shot #41: Back to the hangar action scene, as stormtroopers blast up at the TIE Avenger. Laser and sparks fly everywhere.

Shot #42: In a cantina with arachnid-themed decor, Cassin runs and jumps over the counter.

Shot #43: For once this actually does look to be the following shot. Clearly a fight has broken out in this establishment, as Cassian clambers to relative safety behind the bar, landing on a floor covered in broken glass.

Saw Gerrera: “Remember this moment!"

Shot #44: An explosion in a doorway sends two unidentified figures hurtling back toward the camera.

Shot #45: An Imperial officer attacks Bix by pulling her hair. Looks like we’re in someone’s apartment.

Shot #46: This person is very angry.

Shot #47: How delightful! It’s Syril’s mother Eedy Karn (Kathryn Hunter), dressed in Coruscant finery. Can’t tell who she’s talking to, but she looks happy about it. Maybe Uncle Harlo?

Shot #48: A rebel soldier screams in agony, or possibly just anger, as the battle erupts behind the bench he’s using as cover. He’s grasping a blaster rifle and there are a bunch of extras engulfed in the chaos nearby.