Andor’s Clones Either Change Star Wars Canon… Or Hint At Something Worse

The new Andor season 1 trailer features a glimpse of clone troopers, suggesting Lucasfilm is either making a major change to the canon – or hinting at something darker to come. The Jedi safeguarded the galaxy for a thousand years, but ultimately they failed in their mission to keep the peace. The Sith engineered a war that blazed across the entire galaxy, fought by an army of clones on one side and droids on the other.

Palpatine envisioned the Clone Wars as the ultimate Jedi trap. The cloners of Kamino had implanted inhibitor chips within them, triggered when Palpatine issued Order 66. At his command, the clones turned on the Jedi who had served as their generals, wiping them out. The Empire rose from the ashes of the Jedi’s defeat, but it didn’t take Palpatine long to pivot away from using clone troopers. As seen in Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 1; Moff Tarkin viewed the clone program as expensive and wasteful.

Surprisingly, however, the Andor season 1 trailer features a glimpse of clone troopers in Phase II armor. Trailers are designed to conceal as much as they reveal, so it’s entirely possible the Andor trailer is actually showing a flashback. But some of the details suggest that isn’t the case – meaning Lucasfilm may be hiding some major secrets about their upcoming Disney+ TV show.

The Problem With Clone Troopers Appearing In Andor

Andor is envisioned as a prequel to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and Lucasfilm has already confirmed season 1 is set five years before the first main Star Wars film. This was long after the Empire had decommissioned Kamino’s clone troopers, with the entire cloning facility leveled within a year of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. Only one of Kamino’s cloners was spared by the Empire, Nala Se, who was taken to a new Imperial base at Wayland. The clone troopers were swiftly decommissioned, and Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 2 confirmed they aged at an accelerated rate. With all of this, there should be no clone troopers left in the Empire by the time of Andor.

While it’s possible the clone troopers seen in the Andor trailer appear in a flashback, this seems unlikely given they are stood next to an Imperial, who would not have been present until the rise of the Empire. The implication is that Andor season 1 may well be instituting a major change in Star Wars lore, perhaps suggesting some clone troopers somehow remained active as part of the Empire for longer than anyone previously believed – perhaps with the Empire controlling their aging. If this is the case, it represents a massive change to established Star Wars canon.

Andor Could Be Hinting At A New Empire Clone Program

Alternatively, the Empire may well have initiated a new cloning program. Palpatine was certainly interested in the technology, with the Empire’s clone experiments leading to Snoke – and, of course, to the Emperor’s resurrection in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The Wayland facility seen in Star Wars: The Bad Batch is lifted straight from the old Expanded Universe lore, thought to be relegated to Star Wars Legends, where it focused on cloning experiments. Nala Se could well be participating in a new Imperial cloning program, exploiting classic Kaminoan technology and even bringing back clone troopers.

This seems unlikely, however. There was strong opposition to the clone program at the upper echelons of the Empire, including from Moff Tarkin (who, by this point in the Star Wars timeline, had become a Grand Moff). Instead of cloning rank-and-file soldiers, the Empire focused on Project Rampart, a training program ensuring stormtroopers remained loyal. Imperial Academies were established across the galaxy, with some focusing on specialized training for different sub-groups of stormtroopers. It would seem strange for the Empire to pursue clones while investing so much in Project Rampart.

Even the clone trooper Phase II armor seems odd. Stormtrooper armor was standardized to strip its bearers of their individuality, stressing that each individual soldier was nothing more than a cog in a vast war machine. Although some stormtroopers had specialized armor (flame troopers or scout troopers, for example) in general, the Empire preferred to standardize their armor. If the Empire did create new clones, they could be expected to equip them in standard stormtrooper armor. All in all, then, the glimpse of clone troopers in the new Andor season 1 trailer really does seem rather strange and it will be exciting to see how it plays out.