For years, we were led to believe that when it came to Star Wars, there was one canon and that was it. Every book, comic, TV show, and movie was all supposed to co-exist to tell a single, overarching story. And for the most part, that has been true. But in a few cases, filmmakers have overridden work done by fellow creators, and the best example yet comes in Andor.
In 2017, a few months after the release of Rogue One, Marvel released a one shot comic book called “Rogue One – Cassian & K-2SO Special 1.” Written by Duane Swierczynski and illustrated by Fernando Blanco, the comic explored how Cassian and K2 met. And, for several years, that version of their origin story was considered the truth because it was part of Star Wars canon. Then, of course, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy gave the okay for Tony Gilroy to dig back into those characters with Andor. Fast forward to season two and the origin of K2 and Cassian’s friendship on Andor is completely different from the one in the canon. Recently, on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the creator explained why that was.
“Canon, I usually try to deal with it, and I’m really sympathetic and into it,” Gilroy said. “[But] I was annoyed to find out somebody, in the interim between Rogue and that, had written an origin story for K-2SO. And it’s like, ‘No I’m not paying attention to that. We’re not doing that.’” And so, that was that. You can watch the clip, cued up, here.
For Star Wars fans, I think this is a very interesting issue to talk about. First of all, clearly everyone wants creatives like Tony Gilroy to make a show however they want to make a show. That he was not just beholden to, but embraced, other canon moments such as the Ghorman Massacre, Yavin-4, Mon Mothma’s speech, etc., shows that he wanted his story to fit in the overall world. Also, tens of thousands of people read that comic and, potentially, millions of people watch the show. There’s no real, good reason to be beholden to a fact such a small number of people know about, especially if you don’t agree with it or it doesn’t fit.
And yet, that has always been the beauty of this modern Star Wars canon. While there was clearly a lot to love about the era of the Expanded Universe and how every story could be unique and contradictory, there was also something exciting about knowing every single Star Wars thing you picked up fit together.. And yet, that has slowly been changing. Theming around Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge is one big thing. The animated series Tales of the Jedi, which adapts Ahsoka’s origin in contrast to a novel, is another. And who knows what else could be coming in the future?
It’s a fun debate to have, and ultimately, I’m fine with Gilroy changing K2’s origin to his liking. It’s not like I can’t still enjoy the comic version. One is just the more accepted version now. What are your feelings on all this? Let us know below.
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