Review by C.J. Bunce
The biggest surprise of this week’s coming publication of The Art of Star Wars: Andor–The Complete Series, available for pre-order now here at Amazon, is that this series is contained in a single book, instead of providing a book for each season as with The Mandalorian. That means the book combines nearly twice the content for its two seasons/24 episodes in its 288 pages. Readers of the Abrams Star Wars art library can expect the same handling of this series as with prior installments. You’ll get concept artwork, set design development, prop and costume drawings, and images of ships, along with interviews with key creators.
The library of books, which feature the most thorough looks at the franchise’s production development for the films (in The Art of The Force Awakens, The Art of Rogue One, The Art of The Last Jedi, The Art of Solo, The Art of The Rise of Skywalker, in The Art of The Mandalorian: Season One, The Art of The Mandalorian: Season Two, The Art of Star Wars: Acolyte, even a look at the Earthbound destination in The Art of Galaxy’s Edge), repeatedly makes our end of year “Best of” lists. Take a look inside the latest book in the series below.
Frequent art book writer Phil Szostak interviewed director Tony Gilroy, key art department heads, design staff, and more to provide a picture of the development of the series from the idea of expanding already dead Rogue One: A Star Wars Story character Cassian Andor into his own prequel to the prequel. What this look at the artwork of the series cements is how unique the designs are for the series–nothing else in Star Wars canon resembles the characters, sets, costumes, and vehicles in the series, excepting perhaps the Imperial costumes and ships.
That said images of the costumes reflect designs that borrow much by way of the look and feel from George Lucas’s three Star Wars prequel movies, especially the images of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (these books practically beg for a new “making of” book to be created for each of those films, as well as for Ahsoka, Kenobi, and the Rebels, Clone Wars, and Bad Batch TV series).
At times readers will be able to see how Gilroy & Co borrowed the idea of the “lived-in” look Roger Christian designed for the original 1977 Star Wars movie, but using the effect for new worlds with not so accessible visual cues that tie the series to the prior series and films. The costumes appear to be spins on prequel costume designer Trisha Biggar’s creations–diehard Star Wars fans will want to compare the designs in this book with Biggar’s creations in her book Dressing a Galaxy, discussed here.
I’d mentioned in my review of The Art of Star Wars: The Acolyte the similarities between that series and Andor. With some common players from the production across Lucasfilm, despite settings centuries apart readers may find some commonalities of creators and their creations that find their way to the screen.
As with The Acolyte, readers will quickly notice from their own perspectives what looks and feels like Star Wars and what doesn’t. One takeaway I had on this installment in the Star Wars art library was that because it condenses two seasons into one book, it seems to have smaller images throughout as well as smaller text, which may be harder to see for some readers.
Fans of the two seasons of Andor won’t want to miss this next volume in the Star Wars library of concept art. In a hardcover volume with book jacket, The Art of Star Wars: Andor is now available for pre-order here at Amazon, expected in bookstores this week.
Even better news: It looks like we’ll get to see this year’s feature film in The Art of The Mandalorian and Grogu much earlier than the previous Abrams books. You can pre-order it now here at Amazon, slated to arrive in November.
