While it will be a bit of a wait until Andor Season 2 shows us more of Cassian’s life in the early days of the Rebellion, one image from its new sizzle reel might drive old-school Star Wars fans nuts. In what appears to be a heist scene, we see Cassian stealing a bent-winged, pointy-tipped TIE variant known as the TIE Interceptor. But in terms of onscreen continuity, Interceptors first appeared in Return of the Jedi, which takes place well after Andor. And, according to old-school canon, the Interceptor couldn’t have existed before the Battle of Yavin in A New Hope.
So does the appearance of a TIE Interceptor in Andor Season 2 mess up some nitty-gritty Star Wars canon? Yes and no. It all depends on your point of view.
In brief new footage of Andor Season 2 glimpsed at D23 Brazil, we see Cassian firing up the twin-ion engines of a TIE Interceptor. This is one of the Empire’s classic starfighters, but for at least one generation of Star Wars fans, its appearance is nonsense, because the Empire didn’t produce Interceptors until after Luke Skywalker took the stage. In Star Wars’ old continuity, the Interceptor was an outgrowth of Darth Vader’s prototype fighter in A New Hope, as revealed by 1996’s Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels.
This source also notes that the Empire wanted to replace most TIE Fighters with the superior Interceptor, but the process was only about 20% complete by the time the Empire collapsed. Star Wars fans love splitting hairs about these things, but is this actually a mistake? Or is it a sign that the canon is changing?
Technically, material like The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels is now non-canonical. Wookieepedia points out that according to current canon, the TIE interceptor was rolled out by the Empire around three years before A New Hope, which is perfect for Andor Season 2’s timeline. But when did that change?
The answer is in Rebels. In the episode “The Antilles Extraction,” we see Interceptors in Imperial service two years before the Battle of Yavin. In theory, the idea that these fighters were based on Darth Vader’s prototype could still work, assuming he was flying his ship well before A New Hope, an idea supported by comic books in the current canon. “The Antilles Extraction” is an interesting canonical crossroad that reconciled several conflicting versions of Wedge himself, so it makes sense that starfighter history would be sneakily rewritten at the same time.
It’s unclear if the Interceptor will play a major role in Andor Season 2, or if it’s just a cool detail. Notably, Andor Season 1 used some very old concept art to fix canon continuity with much bigger Imperial starships, so if Andor does mess with TIE canon, Season 1 proves that it’s in good hands.
