2 weeks Ago By Cameron Frew
Andor Season 2 subtly returned to one of the most important locations in Star Wars, and you may not have realized it: Yavin 4. In the opening episodes of Andor’s second season, Cassian escapes an Imperial base in a TIE fighter and eventually lands on a mysterious planet to meet someone called Porko. Unlike places like Tatooine and Mustafar, it’s dense with greenery and trees, you can hear wildlife all around him.
He’s confronted by a group of rebels from the Maya Pei Brigade, who killed Porko after he got “hostile” and damaged their ship. They’re also starving, and the TIE fighter may be their only way off the planet – but nobody except Cassian knows how to fly it, and they don’t trust that he’s a rebel like them. By the end, Cassian manages to get back into the ship and fly away – and as he soars high into the sky, it becomes clear that we’ve actually been on Yavin 4 the whole time.
What is Yavin 4? Yavin 4 (also known as just Yavin) is a jungle moon that orbits Yavin Prime, and it eventually becomes the base of the Rebel Alliance. Long before the Battle of Yavin (when the Death Star gets destroyed in A New Hope), the Great Temple was constructed by the Massassi, a slave race earlier ruled by the Sith. They eventually went extinct, but the temple was later discovered by the Alliance to Restore the Republic after they abandoned their former base on Dantooine, and they used it as their headquarters during the Galactic Civil War.
Yavin has appeared in several Star Wars projects, including A New Hope (this is where Princess Leia gave medals to Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Luke Skywalker) and Rogue One. If you want to go deeper, you should dive into the expanded Legends canon. For example, the spirit of a fallen Jedi tried to corrupt Luke when he started a Jedi Academy on the moon.
How do we know it’s Yavin 4 in Andor Season 2? As Cassian takes off in his TIE Fighter, he flies past a familiar-looking pyramid – and it’s believed this is the Great Temple on Yavin 4 . This makes it the earliest canonical appearance of the location in Star Wars . Related Is Revenge of the Sith returning to theaters in 2025? Re-release explained This was teased by showrunner Tony Gilroy in an interview with Empire .
“I mean, we have to end up in Yavin, right?” he said. “So, we’ll tell the story of Yavin. No one has quite dealt with Yavin the way we will be doing it.
” Diego Luna also said: “We move in space more than ever – the amount of planets and sets you’re going to get to see. There are some familiar and new locations.” If you’ve watched the first three episodes, check out our breakdown of Andor Season 2 Episode 3’s ending and the chilling real-life story behind the premiere .
You should also keep tabs on Andor Season 2’s full release schedule and find out when it takes place in the Star Wars timeline ..
