Andor is the most expensive project in Star Wars history

Its season 2 arrives in April on Disney +, and it reportedly cost nearly $300 million alone.

We know that building the Star Wars saga is not cheap: building a vast science fiction universe filled with different planets, aliens and action requires big resources, substantial VFX and logically quite a bit of money. Episode 9 would have cost Lucasfilm and Disney no less than 300 million dollars, without counting its significant publicity. Forbes calculates, however, that this is nothing compared to the budget of one of the series Star Wars from Disney+, Andorbilled as the most expensive project in the history of the franchise.

Its two seasons having been filmed in England, under the supervision of Tony Gilroy (known for his work on the spy saga Jason Bourne), we have access to certain production details. In all, Disney reportedly paid a whopping $644.9 million in total for the two seasons ofAndor. This amount includes $291 million for its season 2 alone, which will arrive on the platform in spring 2025 – the appointment is made precisely from April 22.

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These figures are accompanied by a major clarification: a significant tax reduction is offered to film studios for filming in the United Kingdom, which would have saved Disney a total of 129.2 million dollars on Andor. This reduces the cost of the series to approximately $515 million.

But be careful, this does not include post-production costs: Forbes insists that this officially communicated figure is not definitive. They still calculate from the budget of season 1 (250 million dollars), that that of season 2 would have increased to 291 million, and this in part due to the SAG and WGA strikes of 2023, which caused costs not anticipated by production.

515 million dollars for twice 12 episodes, this represents “a staggering budget, even by the standards of Star Wars“writes the famous journal specializing in finance. “Especially by television standards.” To hope to increase the number of subscribers to Disney+, the firm is visibly ready to spend such sums in the development of the universe of Star Warsin this case more than 20 million greenbacks per episode. By comparison, each story of The Mandalorian cost around $15 million: in three seasons, Disney + broadcast 24 episodes, the equivalent of two seasons ofAndorand that would equate to around $360 million for the total cost of the series to date.

And in relation to films? Generally speaking, Disney-era Star Wars feature films cost between $200 million and $300 million, with profits exceeding $1 billion in revenue, except for Solothe only flop of the recent saga with 392 million raised worldwide in 2018.

In terms of audiences, season 1 ofAndor was lower than that of The Mandalorianbut it received good reviews. More adult and political than the franchise's recent productions, this show led by Diego Luna was widely acclaimed and was even nominated for an Emmy Award. Disney certainly considers the investment worth it and allows showrunner Tony Gilroy to wrap up the story, rather than leaving the audience waiting… unlike The Acolyteconsidered too expensive in relation to its number of viewers to have a season 2.

Andor: a different approach… and more interesting? (critical)