By George & Josh Bate
Last year, the second and final season of Andor was released, arguably marking the greatest Star Wars story to ever be told since the original trilogy. Tony GIlroy’s sophisticated, emotional, intriguing, and disturbingly relevant series tapped into matters of politics with far greater depth and nuance than most Star Wars stories, in a manner that likely made George Lucas proud.
But Andor was not the only grounded political thriller of a Star Wars story to be released last year. Alexander Freed penned The Mask of Fear (Reign of the Empire), the first in a trilogy of books that, due both to its shared characters and maturity, lives and breathes as a prequel to Andor. A Season 0, if you will. Now, author Rebecca Roanhorse follows Freed’s work and continues the Reign of the Empire trilogy with a similarly gripping and thoughtful espionage tale very much in conversation with both Andor and our real world.
Taking place one year before the events of Andor Season 1 and 13 years after the events of The Mask of Fear (Reign of the Empire), Edge of the Abyss once again follows Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Saw Gerrera as their conflicting philosophies lead them to search for decidedly different ways to loosen the Empire’s ironclad grip on the galaxy. When one of Gerrera’s partisans is captured by the Empire after a mission gone wrong, panic ensues about what to do with a prisoner whose knowledge of resistance efforts could spell an end to rebellion before it’s even truly begun. Meanwhile, Mon grapples with a horrifying discovery that the Empire has turned its sights toward indoctrinating the youth of the galaxy to further cement Imperial control in the galaxy.
Edge of the Abyss effectively serves as a prequel to Andor Season 1 and, as such, includes numerous characters from the hit series. Here’s a breakdown of all the characters who appear in both projects…..
Saw Gerrera
Saw Gerrera, played by Forest Whitaker, is a hardened and radical rebel partisan who believes violence is a necessary means to defeat the Empire. In Andor, he appears in a handful of episodes as the more militant, morally uncompromising side of the emerging rebellion.
Saw is one of the main characters of Edge of the Abyss. His botched mission at the start of the novel kick starts the plot, which revolves around Saw and other rebels trying to figure out what to do with one of his partisans, who is captured by the Empire and may divulge secrets.
Mon Mothma
Mon Mothma, played by Genevieve O’Reilly, is the Imperial Senator from Chandrila who secretly works to build and finance the burgeoning rebellion while maintaining her public position within Palpatine’s government. Andor explores the enormous political and personal sacrifices she makes as she gradually becomes one of the Rebellion’s most important leaders.
Mon is another key character in Edge of the Abyss. Her primary conflict in the novel takes the form of a seemingly never-ending battle balancing her duties as a senator (and secret rebel) with her responsibilities as a mother and daughter. Mon’s relationship with the latter proves particularly fascinating as Roanhorse interestingly toys with uncomfortable questions many parents may face. What do you do when your child doesn’t espouse the same values you live your life by? What happens when your child, who you love more than life itself, is more like your partner, who you detest, than you? Roanhorse lets Mon grapple back and forth with this concept, which nicely leads into her arcs in both seasons of Andor.
Bail Organa
Bail Organa, played by Benjamin Bratt in Andor Season 2, is the Imperial Senator from Alderaan and one of the key political figures helping lay the foundations of the Rebel Alliance. His role connects the more cautious political resistance with the growing organized rebellion against the Empire.
Bail plays a key role in Edge of the Abyss. As one of the rising leaders of the burgeoning Rebel Alliance, Bail is interested in preventing Saw’s captured follower from divulging secrets to the Empire. However, unlike Saw, Bail does not wish to kill her, instead turning to a more legitimate route to get her out of trouble by offering her legal aid.
Luthen Rael
Luthen Rael, played by Stellan Skarsgård, is a secretive rebel spymaster and one of the understated architects of the Rebel Alliance. Publicly posing as an elegant antiques dealer on Coruscant, Luthen secretly coordinates agents and operations across the galaxy, embracing ruthless methods he believes are necessary to defeat the Empire.
Luthen appears in a handful of moments in Edge of the Abyss. Luthen is the character who pulls the strings from behind the scenes to convince Anto Kreegyr to align himself with a students’ organization on Ghorman and attempt a daring heist at a popular singer’s concert on Canto Bight. It is later revealed that Luthen coordinated the assassination of Saw’s captured partisan by poisoning cakes that were brought into the prison. Luthen did not trust that Saw would go through with the assassination as he seemed to have a personal attachment to his follower.
Kleya Marki
Kleya Marki, played by Elizabeth Dulau, is Luthen Rael’s seemingly ordinary assistant at his antiquities gallery but secretly serves as his right-hand woman, most capable operative, and adoptive daughter. In Andor, she manages covert communications and dangerous assignments, proving herself to be every bit as committed and ruthless as Luthen when protecting the rebel network.
In Edge of the Abyss, it is revealed that Kleya has been embedded undercover in a students’ movement on Ghorman to gauge whether they could be used as tools against the Empire. At the end of the novel, Kleya approaches Saw Gerrera to recruit him for the Aldhani heist, although he refuses to engage with her.
Anto Kreegyr
Anto Kreegyr, played by Barry Gingell, is an independent rebel leader whose planned attack on the Imperial power station at Spellhaus becomes a major test of Luthen’s willingness to sacrifice individuals for the larger rebellion. Although his screentime is limited to a single still hologram, his fate demonstrates the brutal calculations and moral compromises at the heart of Luthen’s early Rebel movement.
Kreegyr plays a sizable role in Edge of the Abyss. Desperate to prove himself as a rebel, Kreegyr follows his mysterious bar friend’s (a.k.a. Luthen) suggestion to go to Ghorman and recruit students to launch a heist of a popular singer’s concert on Canto Bight. Before that, Kreegyr attempted to ingratitate himself with Saw Gerrera but was rebuffed as the hardened activisit did not view Kreegyr as being serious with his rebellious intentions.
Lio Partagaz
Major Lio Partagaz, played by Anton Lesser, is a senior officer in the Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) who oversees efforts to identify and crush growing rebellion across the galaxy. In Andor, he is a cold, disciplined, and extraordinarly eloquent administrator who demands evidence and effective action from his subordinates, including Dedra Meero.
Partagaz appears in one chapter of Edge of the Abyss as he admonishes his officer Tavia Tarow for her handling of an undercover operation on Ghorman. Tavia is the handler of Chemish, a main character in the novel, who embeds himself within the student movement on Ghorman to see if they are an active threat to the Empire. Tavia arrogantly presents her perceived ‘victory’ of a mission to Partagaz, who is thoroughly displeased with her handling of the assignment.
Nisus Osar
Nisus Osar, played by Tom Durant-Pritchard, is an official in the Empire’s Ministry of Enlightenment who participates in shaping propaganda surrounding Ghorman. His role in the early stages of the second season of Andor illustrates how the Empire uses information manipulation and public messaging alongside military force to control populations and justify its actions.
The propagandist appears through Edge of the Abyss as a manipulative figure behind the scenes. He first appears as an ominous figure in the life of Quanaliko, one of the galaxy’s most popular singers. Osar wishes to use Quanaliko’s music to indoctrinate the youth of the galaxy and win them over as supporters of the Empire. Later on, Osar hijacks a charity event concert organized by Mon Mothma and Quanaliko to further boost the latter’s image. At the end of the novel, Mon bests Osar by forcing him to return the attempted stolen funds from the Canto Bight charity concert to her so that she can distribute them fairly to schools around the galaxy.
Leida Mothma
Leida Mothma, played by Bronte Carmichael, is Mon Mothma’s teenage daughter, whose growing attachment to traditional Chandrilan customs creates tension with her politically minded mother. In Andor, Leida’s personal life becomes deeply entangled with Mon’s secret rebel activities, highlighting the painful family sacrifices demanded by Mon’s resistance to the Empire.
Leida appears throughout Edge of the Abyss as Mon grapples with her responsibilites to her daughter and the galaxy more generally. Leida clearly aligns herself more with the apolitical Perrin, but Mon sees her interest in the singer Quanaliko as a way to both win over her daughter and achieve good for the galaxy.
Perrin Fertha
Perrin Fertha, played by Alastair Mackenzie, is Mon Mothma’s husband and Leida’s father. In Andor, his privileged, socially focused lifestyle and strained relationship with Mon emphasize the isolation she experiences as she secretly works against the Empire from within the political establishment, much to the detriment of her familial well-being.
Mon’s disgruntled husband appears in several heated exchanges throughout Edge of the Abyss. Perrin laments Mon for her dedication to politics and how this comes at the detriment of their family.
Dasi Oran
Dasi Oran, played by Raphael Roger Levy, is a longtime friend and political ally of Mon Mothma who represents Ghorman in the Imperial Senate. In Andor, he is apprehended by Imperial forces after publicly criticizing Palpatine’s regime for the Ghorman Massacre.
Although not exactly appearing in Edge of the Abyss, the novel makes it clear that Mon Mothma is “trying to build a working relationship with the Ghorman senator, Dasi Oran.”