I think people get the wrong idea about why Andor was successful.
Yes, I am sure it grew in viewership because it was dark, treated its audience like adults, and was well written. All those are pluses, but it's not why it was successful. I don't think all of the shows and movies should be like Andor. Some of them should be all-ages, and it makes Andor special that it was so different.
No, Andor is good because Tony Gilroy was similar to George Lucas in two key ways.
He didn't really give a shit about Star Wars, he just wanted to tell his story.
Fans are making myths about George Lucas, but the truth is he couldn't be bothered to keep up with his own lore, and would override it without remorse. Take the Ghorman Massacre. Gilroy must have heard about it, and wanted to put it in season 2. But the timeline didn't fit. You know what, fuck it, two Ghorman Massacres! Won't fit in the timeline? Fuck you, I'll make it fit.
If you're writing fanficiton you obviously care about the franchise and the lore, but don't let it bog you down. Kill your darlings if it makes a better story. It's your story.
Secondly, Gilroy seemed to know what made Star Wars special is that it takes inspiration from all sorts of places, Akrira Kurosawa movies, spaghetti westerns, The Dam Busters and other World War II movies, freakin' world myths. You take all that stuff, mush it up, and put it in a space fantasy and it all becomes more interesting.
And that it's inherently political with George having a bee in his bonnet about Nixon and Vietnam in the OT and Clinton-era complacency and George W. Bush for the Prequels. The sequels sometimes come close to saying something political but never coherently. So Gilroy comes along and wants to tell this story about an immigrant hustler turned revolutionary, all the effort and infighting that comes with that, along with police profiling, the industrial prison complex, fascism, grassroots revolutionary movements.
I try to do this all the time. During quarantine I found myself watching my favorite anime over and over, and I remember lamenting that I could never come up with a love story this good. And then I was like, nah. This is Star Wars, I'll just take this movie as inspiration chopped and screwed. I'll keep enough of the signifiers that appeal to me but adapt it to the characters and setting. And again, when I wanted to write my Sister fic, I had no idea where to take her character since there was so little of her in the books. But I knew I wanted it to take place a few years after The Bad Batch so that Omega and Emerie could show up for a few scenes. So, what would a clone trooper be doing a few years after the war, after she was replaced. I was perplexed for a bit, so I thought of other stories about war veterans who are people of color trying to get by in a mean world. Then I was like ah! Devil in a Blue Dress. I'll just Walter Mosley it. Now, Sister in that story isn't quite Easy Rawlins, but there's enough echos there to be noticeable, I think. The story isn't Devil in a Blue Dress either, that didn't fit the themes. But you know, it helped me write the story I wanted to write. Borrow, steal, and transform all you can, it's good for you. It's what George would do.
You can't just base new Star Wars on old Star Wars is my point. That'll just stagnate everything.
Anyway. That's what makes Andor good Star Wars in my opinion.
