Star Wars Finally Has a Chance to Explore Andor’s Most Overlooked Characters

Andor may be over, but the Rebellion lives on. While the critically acclaimed Star Wars live-action series came to its powerful conclusion in May, a pair of new books have a chance to fill in the blanks while fleshing out some of the show’s most intriguing (and underused) characters.

Alongside several other comics and books announced during Lucasfilm’s 2025 San Diego Comic-Con panel, the “Reign of Empire” trilogy following Mon Mothma, Bail Organa and Saw Gerrera also received an update. Its second and third book titles were revealed: Edge of the Abyss (by Rebecca Roanhorse) and From The Ashes (by Fran Wilde). Their release dates were also pushed to fall and summer of 2026 and 2027, respectively.

Much like the first book, Mask of Fear, these new titles will follow Mon, Bail and Saw as they continue to fight against the oppressive grip of the Galactic Empire. But what has me most excited about Edge of the Abyss in general is when it’s set: a whole year before Andor season 1.

Star Wars is a tremendously vast universe, spanning multiple eras with subsets of fans and fandom feverishly loyal and intrigued by what each stretch of galactic history has on offer. With the critical acclaim Andor received for both season 1 and 2, the idea of its characters appearing in Edge of the Abyss isn’t as much as a want, but a need for some of the show’s most intriguing heroes who never got their due on Disney Plus.

While you could argue we know everything there is to know about our favorite characters from Andor via the TV series, I beg to differ. With Edge of the Abyss set a year before the show, this is a prime time period to explore the lead-up to the rebellion and answer questions the streaming series couldn’t cover. For example, is there a reason why Bail doesn’t appear in the first season of Andor, despite being present within the second? How did Mon Mothma find herself entangled with the Axis Network to the point she felt confident to fund it?

But it isn’t just the three main protagonists of the “Reign of the Empire” trilogy I’m interested in. Mon, Bail and Saw all arguably have huge presences within the larger Star Wars narrative, with all three appearing repeatedly in both live-action and animation across film and television. So if we’re going to explore Andor characters within the following two books, I’d argue there are a few other characters connected to our main three that deserve the limelight.

The most obvious is, of course, Luthen Rael. Played to perfection by Stellan Skarsgård, Luthen runs a covert spy and resistance group (dubbed the Axis Network by the ISB) determined to take down the Empire via acts of rebellion, such as the Aldhani heist in Andor season 1. We know Mon Mothma helped fund Luthen’s operations, but we don’t actively know how the two became intertwined. The same can be said of Saw and Luthen, who, despite fighting for the same cause, come at rebellion through different perspectives and methods. And with the Axis Network around, it would be fairly remiss to not involve Luthen’s second-in-command, Kleya Marki.

While I’m a lover of everything Kleya (she’s easily the best part of Andor season 2), I’m actually more interested in the involvement and appearance of Mon Mothma’s cousin, Vel Sartha, and Vel’s lover and fellow rebel, Cinta Kaz. While their roles in season 2 were significantly cut back, and their love story tragically (and somewhat controversially) cut short, Vel and Cinta’s relationship was easily one of the most intriguing season 1 B-plots, and I’d have loved to know more about them, particularly Cinta, whose background remains shrouded in mystery outside her family being destroyed by the Empire’s stormtroopers.

Beyond Vel and Cinta’s love story, there’s also the question of what drew them to the Axis Network in the first place. It’s clear in season 1 that both Vel and Mon are part of Luthen’s web and have been for a while, but how did that happen? Did Cinta recruit Vel? Did they meet before Aldhani? Vel’s reason for joining the Rebellion is never established, though considering the heteronormative Chandrilan traditions, it’s established that Vel’s a rebel in more ways than one. Still, even in season 1, she’s one of Mon Mothma’s closest confidants, both for the Rebellion and the ongoing struggle Mon faces in her personal life. The reality is that characters like Vel or Cinta will likely never get the Cassian Andor treatment of a new show or film, so if Edge of the Abyss is going to lead us into a new story with Mon, it makes sense to connect as many threads as possible.

There are, of course, original characters within the Reign of the Empire trilogy that will no doubt get the spotlight too. But with Andor effectively ended, Roanhorse (who also wrote my personal favorite sequel-era book, Resistance Reborn) has the opportunity to do something great: give other Andor characters the attention and care they deserve.