It’s been a whole year since the first chapter of Andor‘s second and final season released. There are plenty of amazing moments to look back on—that TIE Avenger theft, Dedra and Syril being weird little domestic freaks, and of course, Mon Mothma deliriously cutting a rug on the dancefloor. But as always, Andor leaves us thinking and asking a lot of questions, even now. And right now, there’s really only one big one on our minds.
Where the hell is that Blu-ray?
This week, Disney physical media collectors were alarmed to learn that part of the dramatic job cuts at the House of Mouse recently have led to a consolidation that completely wiped out Disney’s home release publicity team. While discs will still be printed, of course—the layoffs mean that Disney’s theatrical publicity teams will now handle home release promotion as well—it was enough to spook people, especially for a company as notorious as Disney about keeping things locked up in its “vault” for so long, and especially with the ephemerality of streaming meaning that shows can be punted off a platform with little warning, leaving no way to watch them legally in the process.
That probably won’t happen to Andor, at least. The backlash would be furious, for starters, given the show’s critical acclaim, and Disney has enough things to be yelled at about lately. There’s also the precedent of the first season already being out on Blu-ray as well, and the studio has slowly but surely been trying to complete its physical releases of its Marvel and Star Wars shows at least. But it took Disney just five months from the end of Andor‘s first season to announce and release it on Blu-ray, whereas, thanks to the more truncated release of season two, we’re 11 months on from season two’s conclusion with not even an announcement in sight. So it’s understandable that people might be a little anxious about Disney rolling out the physical release!
But even beyond the fact that we’ve been waiting and are getting impatient about owning some of the best Star Wars around without needing a subscription fee, Andor season two deserves to be seen in the best format it can be seen in. And while Disney+ is perfectly cromulent in that regard, it is certainly not the best format for a show that just looks as gorgeous as Andor does. Outclassing many of its sister Star Wars shows visually and even managing to give some of its cinematic counterparts a run for their money, season two especially is some of the best-shot and -directed Star Wars we’ve ever gotten.
It’s yearning to be available on formats that can put their best visual foot forward, so we can pause and rewind and pore over all those stunning locations and designs, from the white sheen of the Senate exterior to the dense jungles of Yavin IV to the horrific chaos on Ghorman. It needs reams of behind-the-scenes bonuses to show us what it took to bring it all together and tie a bow on Andor at large. It demands a very pretty steelbook covered in art of, presumably, Diego Luna doing something extremely cool. But above all, it’s vitally important that we at least get the chance to have all of Andor in a format that does not leave it to the whims of streaming media’s threatening impermanence.
If we could wish for anything this close to Star Wars Day, it’d be to have this.
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