Star Wars, it seems, has struck back. The second season of Andor, on streaming service Disney , has been an undoubted critical success. Showrunner Tony Gilroy, who was widely credited with guiding the 2016 movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story across the finish line after a somewhat troubled period of production, seems to have worked his magic again. Scotland, however, can also take some of the credit.

When Andor was announced in 2018 it seemed, just like the Rebel Alliance’s attack on the Death Star, something of a longshot. The titular character, Cassian Andor, was played beautifully in Rogue One by Diego Luna – but (spoiler alert) his character’s story came to a quite definitive end in the movie’s final act.

There was no real clamour in the fanbase to paint the backstory of this rather ordinary rebel hero. Cassian had no lightsaber, no Force powers, and he was no Jedi. But this unremarkable rebel, it transpired, was just what the franchise needed – alongside a grounding in the landscapes of the Scottish Highlands.

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When Andor premiered in 2022, it made the galaxy feel real again. This authenticity of Andor was apparent in its weighty themes – from the authoritarianism and the dangers of emergency legislation to a technologically enhanced prison-industrial complex – but also in its production. Unlike other recent Star Wars series – such as The Mandalorian or Ahsoka, which rely heavily on virtual production technology and enveloping video walls – Andor was filmed largely on location. This decision gave the series a tactile realism that digital backdrops........

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