23 Years Later, Star Wars’ Most Unexpected Sci-Fi Inspiration Makes A Glorious Return

Cassian and Bix have clearly crashed Rick Deckard’s apartment. Although Andor Season 2 doesn’t take place in Los Angeles, in an alternate 2019, the faraway galaxy digs in Episodes 4, 5, and 6 of Andor Season 2 clearly pays very specific homage to Blade Runner. This, of course, isn’t the first time the Star Wars franchise has dipped into the cyberpunk aesthetic, but Bix and Cassian’s apartment in Coruscant in the middle stretch of Andor Season 2 is the clearest Blade Runnering of Star Wars yet.

Mild spoilers for Andor Season 2, Episodes 4-6 ahead.

When Attack of the Clones fully debuted the glittery nighttime world of the city-planet Coruscant, George Lucas was specifically inspired by Blade Runner. From Obi-Wan and Anakin tracking down a murderer, to the seedy aspects of the bar they find themselves in, it’s clear that in 2002, Lucas wanted less goofy Mos Eisley Cantina, and more cyberpunk. Arguably, Attack of the Clones was only partially successful in making Coruscant seem like Blade Runner, but with Andor Season 2, things are taken all the way. And ironically, it’s not the outside cityscape that sells the mood; it’s the interior of where Bix and Cassian are living that really evokes the production design of Ridley Scott’s down-and-dirty sci-fi perennial.

Although director Ridley Scott had a big influence on how Blade Runner looked, legendary artist and designer Syd Mead is largely credited for some of the more memorable looks of the film. It’s here that Andor seems to be borrowing the most inspiration from Blade Runner. Like Deckard’s apartment in Blade Runner, the Coursant apartment of Cassian and Bix feels both capacious and cramped simultaneously. The wall panelings feel very similar to Deckard’s apartment, but there are touches of Officer K’s living quarters in Blade Runner 2049, too.

But the Syd Mead-ish architecture and set design aren’t the only things contributing to the pure Blade Runner vibe of this setting. The lighting and the rain also play a huge role in intentionally homaging Blade Runner. Bix and Cassian’s apartment has a clear view of the Coruscant skyline, but in most of the episodes we find them here, it’s raining. As Scott has said many times about the making of Blade Runner, part of his entire goal with the movie was to have it raining all the time.

But the most Blade Runner thing of all is the way the light comes into the apartment, intermittently. Sometimes Bix and Cassian are in shadow, speaking in hushed tones to complain about the Rebellion and the compromises they’ve made to keep their lives a secret. But then, we get large swaths of light that intrude briefly, reminding us that this structure is positioned in such a way that massive “street” traffic will momentarily bathe everything in harsh light.

Anyone who has lived in a big city knows how this goes, which is why Blade Runner was so successful at evoking both realism and otherworldliness at the same time. Strange apartments in large cities can feel like bizarre cubicles on alien planets. And with Andor, both things are true. All of these people are aliens, and what we’re seeing is an apartment on an alien planet. But of course, it all feels eerily and depressingly familiar.

Andor streams on Disney+.