New Star Wars book reveals Andor took inspiration from Star Wars Rebels

One of the greatest things about Star Wars being such a massive universe is that it allows creators, no matter what project they're working on, to draw inspiration from one another. We've seen this with the 2008 animated show The Clone Wars, which directly inspired the more Western-style approach in the first season of The Mandalorian, as well as in The Book of Boba Fett, which includes a handful of characters from the animated series.

Even Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy, a self-described non-Star Wars fan, has found inspiration for his gritty sci-fi show within other Star Wars material. One particular part of Andor, however, drew great inspiration from an unexpected source.

As revealed in The Art of Andor by Phil Szostak, the official behind-the-scenes companion book for the 2022-2025 Star Wars series, one of the first things that the production did was figure out the logo that would be used to represent Andor's opening title. The symbol would need to perfectly represent the early days of the Rebellion while also reflecting the Rebel Alliance symbol that would come to be used by the time of the original trilogy featuring Luke, Leia, and Han.

The one in charge of designing that was Barry "Baz" Gingell, the lead graphic designer for Andor. A die-hard Star Wars fan, Gingell found his muse in another Star Wars show, one that premiered several years before in 2014.

"Tony and Luke [Hull] were thinking of having anti-Imperial, pro-rebel graffiti painted on the brick walls of Ferrix," Gingell writes in The Art of Andor. " I wanted to create a 'proto' rebel symbol, a pre-evolution of the symbol that we know [but] sharper and more dangerous looking. [...] I found it difficult to ignore the bird notion set up in Star Wars Rebels with Sabine's phoenix."

Graphic: Polygon/Images: Lucasfilm/Disney

The Starbird symbol (pictured above, to the left) was created by Ghost crew member and Mandalorian warrior, Sabine Wren. While the symbol would eventually be adopted by other members of the Rebel Alliance, it originally began as Sabine's very own trademark, which she would graffiti in places to represent herself and the rest of the Ghost crew as a mark of rebellion.

If you tilt the Andor logo to the side, you can see that the overall shape and presentation of the symbol are quite similar. However, Sabine's logo is much more like a phoenix rising out of the flames. According to Gingell, the contrast between the two was intentional.

"I saw this symbol as more of a dangerous talon than a swooping bird," Gingell explains in The Art of Andor. "It's a weapon."

The Rebel Alliance changes massively over the span of years as they commit to fighting against the Galactic Empire, so it makes sense that the symbols they would use beforehand would change right along with them. Metatextually, it's also fascinating to see how the Star Wars medium — the old and the new — adapts over time.