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Why Are Clone Troopers In The Rogue One Prequel, Andor?
The trailer for the Star Wars show Andor features Clone Troopers wearing Phase II armor, indicating the timeline of the upcoming Rogue One spinoff.

Why Are Clone Troopers In The Rogue One Prequel, Andor?

The Rogue One: A Star Wars Story prequel series, Andor, will feature clone troopers, despite being set during the Star Wars franchise’s Imperial era. As shown in Star Wars canon properties like Star Wars: The Bad Batch, clone troopers were phased out of the Empire’s military within a year of Palpatine’s coup. Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), the protagonist of the eponymous Disney+ series, has a grim history with the heroic Republic soldiers, providing a potential explanation for their appearance in Andor.

Andor will take place five years before the events of Rogue One and A New Hope, bringing back the heroic Rebel spy to tell the story of how he took up arms against the Empire. Cassian Andor explains in Rogue One that he’d been fighting what feels like a continuous war since early childhood, but his first enemy wasn’t the Empire. At six years old, Cassian was a child soldier for the Separatist Alliance, having futilely thrown debris at Republic clone troopers and their armored walkers years before he became a formidable Rebel spy.

The first trailer for Andor briefly shows a quartet of clone troopers, clad in Phase II armor, indicating that the moment depicted is either at the end of the Clone Wars or at the very beginning of the Empire’s reign. There are several possible explanations for the inclusion of clone troopers in Andor. The scene in the trailer, which is likely a flashback, could be set in the Clone Wars, depicting a young Cassian throwing rocks at the troopers, the death of Cassian’s father during a protest on Carida, or the earliest days of the Empire before the mind-controlled clones were replaced by recruited stormtroopers.

Andor can depict Cassian’s tragic line of dialogue in Rogue One and show him as a child soldier. Similar to The Mandalorian’s flashbacks, the clone trooper scene might depict Cassian’s tragic experiences during the Clone Wars. Only, in this case, it would include his affiliation with an unscrupulous faction. Din Djarin was rescued by Death Watch terrorists, but Cassian was a part of the Separatist Alliance, which would have subjugated the galaxy under unethical corporate rule.

On the other hand, the clone trooper scene could also show a different side of the normally heroic Galactic Republic. Clone troopers are good men who only betrayed the Jedi when mind-controlled, but the Republic itself was quickly becoming the Empire in all but name by the end of the Clone Wars. In Legends, this was shown in the Battle of Jabiim, but in Star Wars canon, the Republic’s use of lethal force against protestors on Carida, including Cassian’s father, is a reprehensible action that would showcase the moral bankruptcy of the Republic at the time.

Due to their brain implants, clone troopers not only killed their Jedi leaders but also supported the Empire in its earliest days. The animated series Star Wars: The Bad Batch reveals that the effects of clone control chips eventually wane, but their service to the Empire and their likely involvement in the death of Cassian’s father likely makes it almost impossible for him to see them as anything other than villains. The context of the clone troopers’ moments in Andor remains to be seen, but they’re likely appearing in flashbacks.