Warning! This article contains spoilers for Andor episode 10.Andor episode 10 has revealed a slight change to the Star Wars timeline with regard to the Rebellion through Luthen Rael and his Imperial contact, Lonni. Andor episode 10 featured the reveal that Lonni, an agent for the Imperial Security Bureau, has been working with Luthen, handing the Rebel organizer information on the Empire. One thing that Andor episode 10 also divulged was just how long Luthen and Lonni have been working together, which offers a slight difference when looking at the Rebellion's timeline thus far.
It was revealed that Lonni has been providing Luthen with information for six years, with his entire career in the Empire being started for that purpose. Given that Andor season 1 takes place in 5BBY, that means that Luthen has been subtly planning to build the Rebellion since 11BBY. The novelization of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, however, states that the Rebellion did not begin to form until 5BBY and the beginning of Andor and Star Wars: Rebels. While both reveals may seem contradictory, both work in tandem, given that Rogue One's novel meant that 5BBY was when splintered Rebel cells began to work together before their official formation in 2BBY.
What We Know About The Rebel Alliance's Origin & Timeline
With Luthen and Lonni's work being revealed in Andor episode 10, 11BBY is when the first major rebel activity against the Empire began. While there were some other inciting incidents, like the radicalization of Saw Gerrera in The Clone Wars and the initial opposition to Palpatine's dictatorship from Star Wars leaders like Mon Mothma, Padme Amidala, and Bail Organa (among 2000 other Senators), Luthen's planting of Lonni began what becomes the Rebel Alliance. By 5BBY, when Andor season 1 takes place, many individual rebel cells across the galaxy had formed as shown in Star Wars: Rebels.
The main cell focused on in Rebels is the Phoenix cell, which soon became aware of other cells across the galaxy. Eventually, in 2BBY after the Ghorman Massacre, Senator Mon Mothma denounced the Empire and the Emperor, fled Coruscant, and was rescued by the Ghost crew from Star Wars: Rebels. It was here that the Rebellion truly formed. Mothma, after being rendered safe on the Ghost, began a transmission to all rebel cells, urging them to rise up and band together to directly face Star Wars' Empire. This marked the first convergence of all Rebel cells above Dantooine, thus officially forming the Alliance to Restore the Republic (Rebel Alliance) and marking the beginning of the Galactic Civil War.
Andor Makes The Rebellion Even Better
One thing that Andor is doing, like Star Wars: Rebels before it, is making the formation of the Rebellion even better. Before these two projects, not a lot was known about the formation of the Rebel Alliance. However, both shows have fleshed out the timeline between Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.
Andor specifically is showing the early Rebellion in a way that Star Wars: Rebels never could through its maturity. Andor is a highly mature show, leaning directly into the politics of the Rebellion and the Empire and the gray area that comes with it. In doing so - as well as fleshing out major events of the formation of the Rebellion through Luthen and Mon Mothma - Andor is making the Rebel Alliance more compelling than it ever was in a show unlike anything seen in the Star Wars universe.
New episodes of Andor release on Wednesdays on Disney+.
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