Star Wars almost had its very own Mission Impossible TV series

Before Tony Gilroy arrived, Andor was a lot different It goes without saying that Andor, a series following Rogue One's Cassian Andor and the beginnings of the Rebel Alliance, was met with universal critical acclaim. Often hailed as "the best of Disney's Star Wars," the series is beloved by fans and critics alike. However, as revealed in the official behind-the-scenes companion book for the 2022–2025 series, The Art of Andor, the original concept for the gritty sci-fi series was, in fact, very different from what was delivered by Andor's showrunner, Tony Gilroy. The main driving force behind Andor's original conception was the mystery surrounding Cassian at his first appearance in Rogue One. How did someone so cold and aloof become the man leading the all-important mission alongside Jyn Erso to deliver the Death Star plans to Leia Organa in A New Hope? In April 2018, the man charged with answering that question was writer-director Jared Bush, known for his work on animated films like Encanto and Moana. Bush's initial outlines were titled Star Wars: Alliance, which later became Star Wars: Andor Five. The project's codename was known as Whitesnake. "[The series] was described to me a