Disney spent 5 million on Andor promotional graphic featuring Cassian Andor with bold headline text.

Disney Spent $705 Million on ANDOR — More Than Any Star Wars Movie Ever Produced

Soeren Kamper Andor, business model

Disney has officially revealed new financial filings showing that Andor—the critically acclaimed Star Wars spy thriller starring Diego Luna—has become the most expensive Star Wars production in history, with a staggering $705.5 million spent across its two seasons.

That makes Andor more expensive than The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker, or Rogue One. No Star Wars film has ever crossed that number.

And what’s even more remarkable:
Season 2 alone cost $60.5 million in 2024, ahead of its premiere this April.

Source

A Decade of Mixed Results Leads to a Different Kind of Star Wars Investment

Disney’s Star Wars journey since buying Lucasfilm for $4 billion in 2012 has been… uneven.

  • The Force Awakens dominated with $2.1 billion and an 84% audience score.
  • The Last Jedi split the fanbase with a 41% audience score.
  • The Rise of Skywalker rebounded in audience reaction (86%) but brought in only $1.1 billion.

After 2019, Star Wars disappeared from cinemas entirely as Disney pivoted hard toward Disney+ shows.

But those shows also produced mixed results:

The Mandalorian

  • Season 1: 93% audience score
  • Season 2: 91%
  • Season 3: a sharp drop to 51%

The Acolyte

  • Controversial debut
  • Audience score: 19%

And then there was Andor.

ANDOR: The Lone Critical Powerhouse of Disney’s Star Wars Era

Across all Disney-era Star Wars projects, Andor is the one that consistently delivered:

  • Season 1 (2022): 88% audience score
  • Season 2 (2025): 89%

A grounded spy thriller set five years before A New Hope, Andor avoided digital backdrops and instead leaned into:

  • Practical sets
  • Massive real-world locations across the UK
  • Cinematic camerawork
  • A political, character-driven tone rarely attempted in Star Wars

And apparently, that artistic choice isn’t cheap.

Why ANDOR Cost So Much: A Deep Dive Into the Actual Filings

Thanks to UK tax rebate rules, Disney must file detailed financial statements—something US productions normally avoid.

These filings reveal the entire production trail:

1. The production company behind Andor was actually formed for Obi-Wan Kenobi

E&E Industries (UK) was originally set up in 2018 for a Kenobi feature film, which was cancelled after Solo flopped.
That project’s early spending—$7.2 million—appears in the books before the pivot to Andor.

2. Andor was filmed across the UK

Including:

  • Pinewood Studios
  • Real metro stations
  • Coastal towns doubling as alien worlds

This required gigantic physical builds, massive crew sizes, and repeated delays.

3. COVID delays and strikes ballooned costs

  • Six weeks of pre-production completed when lockdown hit
  • Repeated delays
  • A $1.6 million UK government pandemic grant
  • A $2 million insurance payout

4. The workforce was enormous

  • Employee wages: $85.5 million
  • Peak staff in 2023: 501 full-time employees
    (Not including contractors or freelancers — typically the majority of a film crew.)

5. UK rebates cut the net cost, but not the total cost

  • Total reimbursement/tax credit: $142.3 million
  • Disney’s net cost (after reimbursements): $552.4 million

But the total production spend remains $705.5 million — the figure that officially makes Andor the priciest Star Wars production ever.

How This Compares to Star Wars Movies

To put this in perspective:

ProductionEstimated Cost
Andor (S1+S2)$705.5M
The Force Awakens~$447M (with marketing much higher)
The Last Jedi~$317M
The Rise of Skywalker~$275M
Rogue One~$265M

Even with two seasons combined, Andor’s budget is unprecedented.

It was produced like a prestige political thriller, not a sci-fi blockbuster—even though it looks like one.

A High-Risk, High-Reward Strategy for Lucasfilm

Disney appears to see Andor as the prestige backbone of the franchise—just as The Mandalorian carries the merchandising side.

This investment signals:

  • A commitment to grounded storytelling
  • A desire to expand beyond “toyetic” Star Wars
  • A long-term strategy to diversify tone and genre
  • A belief that political, character-driven Star Wars can coexist with space wizards and bounty hunters

And audiences seem to agree: Andor is the only modern Star Wars show to maintain consistently high ratings across seasons.

What Comes Next?

The final note in the filings suggests the cost may rise even further in the next financial disclosures.

Meanwhile, bigger geopolitical questions loom:

  • The UK remains a massive production hub due to tax incentives
  • But a proposed 100% tariff on foreign-made films in the United States could disrupt everything
  • Studios may soon be forced to choose between higher costs at home or continued dependence on international incentives

For Disney, Andor may end up being the last of its kind—an ambitious, expensive, grounded Star Wars story built with real sets, huge crews, and cinematic scale.

If so, at least it went out in style.

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