Andor Season 2 places episodes 1-3 in 4 BBY, episodes 4-6 in 3 BBY, episodes 7-9 in 2 BBY, and episodes 10-12 in 1 BBY. Each three-episode chapter is separated from the next by roughly one in-universe year. The progression takes Cassian Andor to the opening of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, but those fictional years are not the dates when the episodes arrived on Disney+.
What does BBY mean, and why do the numbers go down?
BBY stands for Before the Battle of Yavin, the battle depicted in Star Wars: A New Hope that serves as a reference point for the franchise's timeline. Therefore 4 BBY comes before 3 BBY, followed by 2 BBY and 1 BBY. The numbers get smaller as the story approaches the battle. They are not years on our calendar.
Season 1 begins in 5 BBY. Season 2 picks up Cassian's journey a year later and follows four successive periods. Disney described the season as 12 episodes divided into four three-episode chapters, while a StarWars.com feature on costume design explicitly labels every chapter with its BBY year.
Andor Season 2: timeline of all 12 episodes
Minor spoiler warning: The table mentions settings and situations from the episodes but does not explain their endings.
| Ep. | Original episode title | Story year | 2025 release date | Story marker (minor spoilers) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | One Year Later | 4 BBY | April 22, 2025 | Cassian steals a TIE prototype; Mon Mothma prepares for a wedding. |
| 2 | Sagrona Teema | 4 BBY | April 22, 2025 | Cassian faces a rebel dispute; Bix's refuge comes under threat. |
| 3 | Harvest | 4 BBY | April 22, 2025 | The Mina-Rau and Chandrila storylines reach this chapter's turning point. |
| 4 | Ever Been to Ghorman? | 3 BBY | April 29, 2025 | One year later, Cassian and Bix operate from Coruscant; Ghorman moves into focus. |
| 5 | I Have Friends Everywhere | 3 BBY | April 29, 2025 | Under a false identity, Cassian approaches Ghorman's resistance. |
| 6 | What a Festive Evening | 3 BBY | April 29, 2025 | A resistance operation on Ghorman intersects with missions on Coruscant. |
| 7 | Messenger | 2 BBY | May 6, 2025 | Another year passes; the base on Yavin 4 grows while tensions persist on Ghorman. |
| 8 | Who Are You? | 2 BBY | May 6, 2025 | The conflict on Ghorman reaches a decisive escalation. |
| 9 | Welcome to the Rebellion | 2 BBY | May 6, 2025 | Mon Mothma publicly takes a stand against the Empire. |
| 10 | Make It Stop | 1 BBY | May 13, 2025 | In the final year before Yavin, Luthen's covert network comes under pressure. |
| 11 | Who Else Knows? | 1 BBY | May 13, 2025 | Cassian returns to Coruscant as intelligence about an Imperial weapon nears the rebels. |
| 12 | Jedha, Kyber, Erso | 1 BBY | May 13, 2025 | Intelligence reaches Yavin and Cassian heads toward the opening of Rogue One. |
Where do the three time jumps happen?
The first jump takes place between episodes 3 and 4, moving from 4 BBY to 3 BBY. Episode 4 establishes that a year has passed since the escape from Mina-Rau, while the story increasingly centers on operations and tensions involving Ghorman.
The second jump, between episodes 6 and 7, moves the action to 2 BBY. The official episode 7 guide marks a year since the earlier Ghorman Front operation and shows a more established rebel organization on Yavin 4. The third jump, between episodes 9 and 10, takes the story to 1 BBY, the final chapter before Rogue One.
How does episode 12 connect directly to Rogue One?
The finale does not begin a fifth chapter or jump ahead to the Battle of Yavin. The official guide to 'Jedha, Kyber, Erso' says Cassian brings intelligence about the Imperial threat to the base on Yavin 4 and departs for the Rings of Kafrene, where Rogue One picks up his story. The film then leads into the events immediately preceding A New Hope. Thus, '1 BBY' labels the show's final chapter, not the movie's release date.
The four release dates follow a different calendar
The four three-episode batches arrived on Disney+ on April 22 and 29 and May 6 and 13, 2025, respectively. Those Tuesdays belong to the real-world release schedule; 4, 3, 2 and 1 BBY belong to the Star Wars story timeline. The distinction matters: one week passes between chapter releases, but approximately one year passes between chapters in the fiction.
Sources and references
- Disney: four-chapter season structure
- Star Wars: BBY years for the four chapters
- Star Wars: episodes 1-3 official explainer
- Star Wars: episodes 4-6 official explainer
- Star Wars: episodes 7-9 official explainer
- Star Wars: episodes 10-12 official explainer
- Disney+: April 2025 release schedule
- Disney+: May 2025 release schedule
- Star Wars: official episode 12 guide
