Where in the Galaxy Is Andor Now?

It’s time once more to visit that far, faraway galaxy, and nothing in all of Star Wars makes the various planets and moons feel as complex and lived-in as Andor. Tony Gilroy’s masterful series is so good that the sci-fi Star Wars of it all sometimes seems irrelevant compared to the nuanced takes on resistance and fascism. However, it is indeed a Star Wars show, and the sophomore season sees the titular Rebel spy visiting several worlds — some new and some returning — that can together be a lot to keep track of. So here is a handy guide to the many planets (and moons) visited or mentioned by the characters in Andor’s second season. There are no spoilers here for unaired episodes, though there are some allusions to events that have already been confirmed in the wider Star Wars canon.

Season-One Planets of Note

With the exception of the city planet Coruscant (more on that later), Andor’s sophomore season doesn’t revisit any of the worlds from season one, but a few get name-dropped, so here’s a brief refresher. 

• Kenari is Cassian’s home planet, a fairly undeveloped jungle world that was destroyed by the Imperial mining efforts that killed the rest of the population. Cassian, then known as Kassa, escaped the fate of the rest of his people when Maarva rescued him.

• Ferrix is the mining planet where we first meet Cassian, along with Bix Caleen, Brasso, Wilmon Paak, and the late Maarva. The planet with the cool guy who hit the anvil, Ferrix was last seen rising up in rebellion at Maarva’s funeral, and Cassian & Co. had to flee. Dedra Meero was on Ferrix during this incident, getting in a bit over her head in her search for the Rebel agent she was calling “Axis.”

• Morlana One is a watery planet that Cassian visited early in season one, investigating a possible lead about his missing sister. When he killed a guard, a young private-security employee named Syril Karn started investigating, eventually setting himself in Cassian’s orbit as well as Dedra’s.

• Aldhani is the planet where Cassian helped steal from an Imperial vault under the cover of the Eye, a dazzling meteor shower. This was Cassian’s first official act working with Luthen Real and his first meeting with Vel Sartha.

• Niamos is the vacation planet with that dope-ass club music! It’s where Cassian tried to hide out before he was arbitrarily arrested and realized he couldn’t just avoid the struggle.

• Narkina 5 is the dystopian prison planet Cassian was sent to and escaped from. It’s where he became a true ride-or-die Rebel, and it’s where he met Melshi, a character who will eventually fight (and die) alongside him in Rogue One. For all we know, Kino Loy is still on Narkina 5. (😔)

Sienar

Test Facility 73

Andor’s sophomore season kicks off with Cassian stealing a prototype TIE fighter from a test facility located in the mountains of a planet seemingly identified as Sienar. No planet called Sienar has appeared in Star Wars before this, but Sienar is a very important name. In both the current Star Wars canon and the old “Legends” canon, Sienar Fleet Systems was the corporation responsible for creating the various TIE fighter series of spacecraft for the Empire. The company got its name from the Sienars, the influential noble family that owned and operated SFS. At one point, Luthen says that they “know Cassian got off Sienar,” which seems to imply that Sienar is indeed the name of the planet or moon where the TIE fighter was being built. In any case, whatever world Test Facility 73 is located on appears to be wintry, with mountains, cliffs, and icebergs, which Cassian narrowly avoids crashing into as he flees.

Mina-Rau

Outer Rim

Cassian’s fellow Ferrix refugees Bix Caleen, Wilmon Paak, and Brasso have set up shop on an Outer Rim planet called Mina-Rau. Andor season two is the first mention or appearance in the franchise of Mina-Rau, which, in the grand tradition of Star Wars’s one-biome planets, appears to be covered pretty much entirely with wheat. (One of the Imperials mentions that there is a city, seemingly called Rau, though he says it’s “not much.”) This agricultural planet serves as the Empire’s breadbasket, and it has a vested interest in making sure the wheat is harvested and exported. Migrant workers who come to Mina-Rau are common, and the farmhand labor is so needed that officials usually look the other way when undocumented workers don’t have a visa, like the Ferrix crew.

Chandrila

Mothma Estate

After hearing it mentioned a ton in Andor’s first season, we’re finally getting to visit Senator Mon Mothma’s home world in season two. A beautiful mountainous planet with lots of greenery, Chandrila is a luxurious place that’s rich in tradition … as much as Mon might resent those traditions. One of the main plots of season two’s first three-episode arc takes place during a traditional Chandrilan wedding at the Mothma estate — which boasts plenty of circular courtyards, round doors, and delicately embellished surfaces. Mon and her cousin, Vel Sartha, don’t seem to have much love for the rigid traditions of their home world, which have somewhat fallen out of fashion: Mon quips that there hasn’t been a traditional three-day Chandrilan wedding since her own arranged marriage to her deadbeat husband, Perrin, when they were teens — and that hasn’t worked out super-great. However, everything that’s old is new again, which is why Lieda and her friends want to become the Chandrilan equivalent of tradwives.

Steergard

The son of one of the guests at Lieda Mothma’s wedding is in the Imperial Navy and mentions that he has recently been transferred from Steergard. Although the planet, which is home to a large Imperial Navy base, didn’t appear in Andor’s first season, it was mentioned a lot: The theft of Imperial materials from the base is what first tipped Dedra Meero off about Luthen’s anti-Imperial network.

Yavin IV

While we don’t learn it’s Yavin IV until the end of episode two, the shot of Cassian flying his stolen TIE fighter out of the jungle and over some pyramid ruins confirms that this is indeed the famous Rebel base — or at least it will become a Rebel base by the time of Rogue One and A New Hope. The fourth moon of the giant red-gas planet Yavin (hence the name), Yavin IV is covered in jungle, and the ruined pyramids were constructed by the Massassi, a long-extinct species that might have at one point been Sith slaves.

Cassian will eventually have a more comfortable time on Yavin IV, once the Rebellion officially claims the moon as its secret headquarters and sets up shop. That hasn’t happened in the year 4 BBY, when the first arc is set, as there’s no base yet. The moon was supposed to just be an obscure meeting point for Cassian to transfer his stolen TIE fighter to another Rebel pilot. Instead, he gets taken hostage by stranded, squabbling members of a rebel faction led by Maya Pei, who was mentioned in season one.

The Maltheen Divide

Orson Krennic’s top-secret conference to discuss how to control Ghorman takes place in a seemingly secluded mountaintop building, and the onscreen text identifies the location as the Maltheen Divide. There’s no place by that specific name in the depths of Wookieepedia, but it’s possible it could be related to Malthee, a city on the planet Kinyen. As detailed in the Star Wars: Age of Rebellion role-playing game (which is part of the “Legends” canon and not necessarily the current canon), the Empire destroyed Malthee after the native Kinyen population, the three-eyed Gran aliens, refused to capitulate to the Empire’s demands. This happened somewhere between 5 BBY and 2 BBY (so right about when Andor takes place).

The crater where the city once stood was known as the Malthee Crater, which seems like it might be related to the Maltheen Divide. Would Krennic host a secret summit right by the scene of an Imperial travesty? Given how much of Andor’s second season is building up to an act of Imperial cruelty so egregious it galvanized widespread rebellion, it seems unlikely that the Empire has already destroyed an entire city. The Massacre at Malthee is not currently canon, and while it’s possible that Krennic held his meeting on the planet Kinyen, it’s unconfirmed.

Coruscant

The city planet that’s home to the Galactic Senate, ISB headquarters, Luthen Rael’s antiquities shop, and trillions of people and aliens reappears prominently in Andor’s second season. First appearing in now-non-canonical Star Wars content in the early ’90s and making its named film debut in The Phantom Menace, Coruscant is probably the most important planet in the galaxy, as it’s the seat of the Emperor’s power (and, formerly, of the Jedi Council). We don’t spend a lot of time on Coruscant in Andor season two’s first arc, as some of the main characters who typically operate on the city planet, Luthen and Mon Mothma, are both on Chandrila for a wedding. However, Luthen’s assistant, Kleya, heads back to use the shop’s powerful secret subspace transceiver to receive a message from an MIA Cassian. We also see Syril Karn and Dedra Meero’s apartment — a crisp white space that feels about as cozy as the prison on Narkina 5.

Ghorman

The more important planet in Andor’s second season is almost certainly Ghorman, which is only mentioned in the first arc but will play a major role in the episodes to come. The planet, which is stylized like a space version of Nazi-occupied France, is a fashion hot spot with one major export: silk from the Ghorman spiders. However, as Krennic reveals, spiders are not the most unique thing in Ghorman. Deep within the planet lies a metal known as Kalkite, which the Emperor claims to need for his energy initiative but we all know he really needs it to build the Death Star. Should a suitable alternative not be found, the Empire will begin gouge mining Ghorman, a procedure so intense it might cause the core to collapse.

Without going into detailed spoilers of what’s to come in the rest of the season, established Star Wars canon makes it clear that what happens on Ghorman is a crucial turning point in the rebellion. An event known as the Ghorman Massacre will be a flash point, though exactly what and how it happens hasn’t been specifically locked down in canon. In the no-longer-canon “Legends,” the Ghorman Massacre occurred when Wilhuff Tarkin, the high-up Imperial played by Peter Cushing in A New Hope and by CGI in Rogue One, landed his starship on unarmed protesters in 18 BBY. In the current canon, though, the massacre occurred in 2 BBY, and the specifics of what happened haven’t been made clear. In an interview, Tony Gilroy said he was excited to have “straightened out” this moment.

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