Andor's staggering $645 million budget makes it the most expensive Star Wars story of all time

Andorthe impressive $645 million budget makes it officially the most expensive Star Wars history already made, raising a disturbing question: why The Acolyte Was it really canceled by Lucasfilm? The live action Star Wars TV shows got impressive budgets, with a single season of The Mandalorian costing US$120 million. Lucasfilm's stated goal was to make TV shows at the same level of quality as movies, which explains the budgets.

AndorThe company's budget, it turns out, is bigger than anyone imagined. According to tax returns filed in the UK (via Forbes), Disney spent a staggering $645 million on the show in total, after spending a record $290.9 million on Andor season 2. Incredibly, the total budget is probably higher; This submission covers expenses until November 22, 2023, which does not even cover all filming. What makes this surprising, however, is that these costs arise after canceling the The Acolytewhich had a budget of US$230.1 million. What is happening?

Andor's Budget Makes Star Wars Story Most Expensive Ever

There has never been anything that compares to Andor in cost

AndorThe gigantic budget of each episode of the two-season show has an average cost of $26.9 million. This makes it one of the most expensive TV shows ever made, rivaled only by shows like Stranger Things season 4, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Powerand WandaVision. The enormous scale of AndorThe cost of is illustrated by comparing it with others Star Wars stories.

Andor had low ratings… but two big positive factors

Why did Disney approve this type of budget?

These numbers are surprising and naturally raise a simple question: why did Disney greenlight this type of budget and was it the right decision? It is worth noting that Andor The second season's budget was approved at a very different time, before the House of Mouse began its current pivot back to the big screen. Lucasfilm will certainly be struggling to get approval for anything like that kind of TV show budget right now.

There is evidence AndorThe audience for was initially comparatively low. That said, it has received popular and critical praise, and is known to have continued to perform consistently. According to Jimmy Doyle, film and TV director and analyst at Luminate, “Andor is one of the best Star Wars shows as we go later, so people continued to discover the show well after its initial release.” The show's reputation has only improved over time, meaning next year Andor The second season is expected to be one of the biggest hits of 2025.

The Acolyte had low ratings and did not perform long-term

One of Star Wars' biggest disappointments in recent years

How does this compare to The Acolyteanother high-budget, low-rated TV show — that was canceled in part because of production costs? Despite everything, there is an effort among the fandom to bring The Acolyte back, the sad truth is that it performed poorly – both in the short and long term. A review bombing campaign directed against The Acolyte it damaged the show's reputation, and word of mouth didn't really help give it a chance to recover.

“The Acolyte… had a smaller audience than most other Star Wars shows when it premiered, and then didn't gain an audience,” Doyle told us. “In fact, it lost a bit of audience during its airing. So with that loss of viewership, plus the critical reception of the show, those two things kind of lead you to cancellation.“This is the hard truth of modern television: if a show isn't on, it will be cut.

Disney needs to control show budgets urgently

This approach is simply not sustainable

Disney will likely consider Andor season 2 is a worthwhile investment; The show's growing reputation means ratings next year are expected to soar. Despite all this, however, there is no way this type of budget is sustainable. There have been recent reports that Lucasfilm is cutting back, both in the number of shows in the works and in costs. This is certainly sensible.

Looking back at the history of Star WarsWhat's truly remarkable about George Lucas is that he managed to keep budgets under control. Even the prequel trilogy is surprisingly low key, especially considering its use of state-of-the-art CGI. Modern Lucasfilm has lost the ability to do this, which means costs have skyrocketed. Behind-the-scenes drama often made things even worse, as in the case of movies Rogue One and Soil.

Hopefully, Andor marks the high point for several Disney+ Star Wars TV programs. It is known that only one other live-action production is in progress at the moment, Ahsoka season 2. While there are reports that this will involve more location filming, meaning the budget will likely be higher in the future, it shouldn't be anywhere near Andorthe gigantic costs. No doubt Lucasfilm will now focus on keeping budgets considerably lower without sacrificing quality; costs were offset with Andorbut this is likely to be the exception rather than the rule.