Ben Mendelsohn and Forest Whitaker will return for “Andor” season 2

Footage shown at this year's D23 fan event revealed that Mendelsohn's Krennic and Whitaker's Saw Gerrera are piloting back into the "Andor" orbit.

Andor will soon return for its second season — and it’s bringing some heavy-hitters from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story to the small screen.

At Disney’s D23 fan event on Friday in Anaheim, Calif., Diego Luna took to the stage to present a clip featuring cast and crew interviews, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and exclusive first-look footage of season 2.

The clip confirmed the series’ first appearance from the villainous Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn). Fans were also treated to a glimpse of Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), who briefly appeared in Andor’s first season, as well as the familiar security droid K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), and Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), who played a major supporting role in prior episodes of the show.

“Thank you for caring so much about season one," Luna said to the crowd. "In many ways, Rogue One changed my life. It’s amazing to be Cassian Andor. And as we move towards the final piece of this puzzle, being able to complete the story that starts with season 1 and deliver it to the events of Rogue One is an incredible and full circle for me.”

Luna delved deep into the forces that will drive his character through the new season: “This second part of our story will follow Cassian over the period of four years as he grows into the rebel hero we see fulfill his destiny with the ultimate sacrifice in Rogue One. Every slice of time charts Cassian’s evolution into our revolution, but in this season, the stakes are greater, the enemy is more organized, and the clock is ticking. As the imperial threat grows and the lines have become more dangerous, Cassian is fueled by a sense of high purpose: to fight for freedom and a better tomorrow.”

Related: Andy Serkis on the future of Kino Loy on Andor: 'I mean, we don't see him die'

Andor, which takes place in the period leading up to 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, debuted its first season in 2022, receiving some of the most overwhelmingly positive reviews of any Star Wars project in the Disney era. Though the show bears the name of Luna’s character, it’s perhaps the truest ensemble project in live-action Star Wars history: it features fascinating, full-fledged arcs for series regulars like Kyle Soller’s sniveling Imperial officer Syril Karn, Stellan Skarsg?rd’s undercover rebel leader Luthen Rael, and Genevieve O’Reilly’s cunning senator Mon Mothma, as well as shorter but equally impactful development for recurring characters like Alex Lawther’s thoughtful young rebel Karis Nemik and Andy Serkis’ desperate prisoner Kino Loy.

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Andor’s cast and crew previously told Entertainment Weekly that season 2 will cover a staggering five-year time period, which means characters will change fairly suddenly as the show jumps forward in time. "Throughout the season, all of our characters evolve because there's so much time," series star Adria Arjona said on EW’s Dagobah Dispatch podcast. "There's a time gap in between every couple of episodes. So this season, for me, is super interesting because I get to grow with Bix. And it continues to happen throughout the entire season. So you get to meet, like, three different versions of Bix."

Gilroy explained that the second season will cover the challenges and stumbling blocks of taking an underground revolutionary movement into the mainstream. "If your business is based on paranoia and secrecy and death, how do you expand your business?" the showrunner said on Dagobah Dispatch. "How do you go public? How do you go wide? The Rebel Alliance that emerges on Yavin, it's almost like the Christian Democrats: It's a consolidated compromise group. But what happens to all the original gangsters and the hardcore people who built that road? What happens to them, and how do they integrate with that?"

Related: Diego Luna and Tony Gilroy explain why Andor was a 'risk' for Star Wars

Season 2 will be Andor’s last, and will end near the beginning of Rogue One, which saw Luna’s character further integrate himself into the Rebellion and ultimately perish on Scarif alongside Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones). Luna, however, doesn’t see the inevitability of his character’s fate as an issue for Andor.

Related: Diego Luna breaks down that epic Andor finale and teases season 2

"The beauty of this show is that even though sometimes you know what's going to happen, it hits you as though you're learning it for the first time," the actor told Dagobah Dispatch. "You are witnessing this from the inside, from the personal perspective. You get to live it with the characters, or through the characters. Therefore, it hits you differently. It's not about the events, necessarily, but about the choices made and the risks these characters are taking. It's because you know them that you care like you didn't care before."

Andor season 2 will premiere sometime in 2025 on Disney+.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.