‘Andor’ Season 2’s Rebellious New Planet Ghorman, Explained

In a galaxy far, far away, there are certain planets that seem a bit closer — or at least more familiar — than others. Ask anyone wearing a Star Wars shirt on the street to name a planet from the franchise, and they’d probably go with Tatooine. Coruscant would be a good second option; possibly then Naboo, or poor, doomed Alderaan.

Well, prepare to hear another name added to the lexicon because Andor’s second season seems poised to bring a lesser-known, but well-documented planet in Star Wars history to the forefront: Ghorman.

Before Andor returns for Season 2 (and brings the show’s timeline ever closer to the events of Rogue One), here’s what we already know about Ghorman and what we suspect the show might delve into in the new episodes.

Where is Ghorman mentioned in the Star Wars universe?

If you’re a movies-and-TV-only fan, Ghorman might be unfamiliar to you. To date, while plenty of lore exists surrounding it, it hasn’t shown up on-screen. We did hear about it in Star Wars: Rebels, during Mon Mothma’s bold address to the Senate — but when the planet appears in Andor, it’ll be the first we’ve actually gotten to see it.

Within canon, Ghorman is located in the Colonies, which places it just outside the Core Worlds like Coruscant (but not as far away as Tatooine). It’s known for producing high-quality silk fabrics, but its main export might be Imperial discontent — and a spark of revolution as the galaxy learns of the atrocities committed against it by the Empire, and how its citizens fought back.

During the first season of Andor, Mon (Genevieve O’Reilly) makes mention of shipping lanes to the planet being cut off, which she says will cause thousands to starve. Legends mentions a similar, if not exactly the same, issue: The Ghorman people protested peacefully against increased Imperial taxes, which resulted in the Empire retaliating with deadly force.

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What is the Ghorman Massacre?

Those fans who are already familiar with Ghorman’s history were intrigued when Mon mentioned it during that tense Season 1 chat with her husband because the Ghorman Massacre is already an infamous incident within Star Wars canon. In Legends, the massacre involves Grand Moff Tarkin landing his ship on peaceful protestors, which results in hundreds of casualties and causes an outcry across the galaxy. Canon is less detailed, but equally grisly; we know it took place two years before the Battle of Yavin, we know there was a peaceful protest on Ghorman, we know the Empire retaliated with troops and blasterfire, and we know hundreds to thousands were killed. We also know the massacre was the inciting incident that led Mon to publicly denounce the Emperor and the Empire. As a result, she fled Coruscant and formally joined the Rebellion.

As one might assume, Ghorman already has its own rebel group: the Ghorman Front. Details about it are sparse, although we did hear Saw Gererra (Forest Whitaker) mention it during his “all of them, lost!” speech to Luthen (Stellan Skarsgard) in Season 1.

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What happens with Ghorman in Andor?

As of now, that’s the major question. We don’t know a ton yet about how the doomed planet will be integrated into Andor’s second-season storylines, although we know for certain it’s coming. Showrunner Tony Gilroy teased a Ghorman storyline to Collider, saying that canon has never been clear on what really happened during the massacre — and that Andor will feature a plotline involving the planet that takes place over five episodes.

It doesn’t seem too much to assume that we’ll see the massacre itself, and perhaps that the major protest scenes that have been appearing in Season 2 trailers might be taking place on Ghorman (the Special Look trailer on Disney+ mentions in a subtitle that people are “singing in Ghor,” the Ghormans’ native language). If that’s the case, it also appears that Kyle Soller’s Syril Karn might have a role to play on Ghorman, since he’s dressed similarly to the protestors and appears in the same setting. So does Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), who we’d expect to show up for at least one of those five episodes. We’ll have to wait and see how Andor addresses this key Star Wars moment, but one thing is certain: after this, there’ll be no more guesswork as to what happened when the Empire descended on Ghorman.

Andor Season 2, premieres April 22, Disney+