Disney's 2-Season Sci-Fi Series With Near-Perfect RT Score Succeeds At Its Hardest Task

Published Jul 26, 2026, 7:00 AM EDT Sean is a senior writer for ScreenRant and has been writing about new TV releases since December 2023. He has received multiple advance screenings of popular shows and ideated his own coverage read by hundreds of thousands of readers. Sean is a self-published author of a Western novel. Sean has also written award-winning opinion pieces related to local politics while getting his Bachelor's degree in journalism. One of Disney+'s best science fiction shows has a nearly perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes, and it achieved it despite facing a massive challenge from its franchise. While Apple TV may be considered the king of sci-fi among the streaming services, Disney+ is a very close second. From Star Wars shows to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's many series, along with other notable franchises like Alien, Predator, and more, some of the best shows on Disney+ are sci-fi. Still, the single best piece of science fiction that Disney+ has to offer is Andor, a Star Wars show. Andor's accolades speak for itself: the show has a 96% average on Rotten Tomatoes across its two seasons, it was nominated for several Emmy Awards, and it's widely regarded as the best Star Wars story ever told. The story of Cassian Andor, of the Rebel Alliance's early days, and the show's exploration of the Empire's fascist reign of terror, is one of the most hauntingly beautiful sci-fi stories ever put to film. Andor did, however, have some challenges from the start. The show's biggest challenge actually should have been insurmountable, but it succeeded in it every step of the way. In fact, it's precisely because that challenge was so daunting that Andor was so surprising. Andor had to redefine Star Wars, and it had to do so without using the franchise's most iconic elements, the Jedi and the Force. Andor Successfully Moved Live-Action Star Wars Beyond The Jedi & The Force MovieStillsDB Before Andor, Star Wars was mostly viewed as a family-friendly franchise that was a mix of science fiction and fantasy. When people thought of Star Wars, they thought of lightsabers, Jedi, the Force, and the Sith; aka, the more fantastical and magical elements of the series. Star Wars always had a grounded sci-fi edge to it, especially through its massive space battles, rundown ships, and non-Force wielders like the Rebel Alliance, but its fantasy side was a defining part of the franchise. Andor, however, moved Star Wars away from the fantasy of the Jedi and the Force. Across its two seasons, there's only one indication of the Force even existing, and it's only through one healer at the Rebel base on Yavin. Instead, the show doubles down on the sci-fi side of Star Wars and tells an incredibly grounded story about how the fascist Empire is destroying the ordinary people of the galaxy, and how those people learn to fight back. Overcoming Star Wars' fantasy elements, which the franchise is arguably best known for, was Andor's biggest challenge. Yet, it knocked that challenge out of the park. Even with a much smaller scale than the battle between the light and dark sides of the Force, Andor feels more suspenseful, impactful, and important than anything else in Star Wars. It did a brilliant job of showing that even the normal people of the galaxy far, far away could be as interesting and influential as a Jedi like Luke Skywalker, and they could be a lot more complex while they were at it. Andor basically had to redefine Star Wars, one of the most iconic and influential film franchises of all time. No single show should have been able to do that. It was a nearly insurmountable, Herculean task, but it's precisely because Andor nailed it so hard that the show is so good. It defies every expectation viewers have going in, and it's the disconnect between what we think of being Star Wars and what Andor actually is that makes it so compelling. Andor Wouldn't Have Been Possible Without Rogue One Credit: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures via MovieStillsDB It's worth noting that Andor shrugging off the fantasy elements of Star Wars didn't come out of nowhere. Andor wouldn't have been possible without its earlier sequel film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Rogue One was the first to completely omit the Jedi and Sith and focus solely on members of the Rebel Alliance. It proved that Star Wars could handle a gritty war movie, and Andor took that to the next level by showing that the franchise could handle a grim political spy thriller. If Rogue One hadn't already primed Star Wars fans to expect more out of this franchise, Andor would never have gotten off the ground. Far fewer people would have been willing to give Star Wars the benefit of the doubt and watch a show about some random spy in the Rebel Alliance if Rogue One hadn't already proven that a single spy can change the entire galaxy. Essentially, Rogue One walked so Andor could run. Additionally, Andor wouldn't have been nearly as acclaimed as it is if Rogue One hadn't already written its ending. If Andor was a standalone film, and we didn't know how Cassian was going to die, it wouldn't have been filled with the oppressive sense of impending doom and dread that makes it so tragically beautiful. It would still have been a great sci-fi political thriller, of course, but seeing how Andor slowly made its way to Rogue One as an endpoint added something truly special to the show. Release Date 2022 - 2025-00-00 Network Disney+ Showrunner Tony Gilroy Directors Susanna White Writers Dan Gilroy Franchise(s) Star Wars Creator(s) Tony Gilroy