'Star Wars: Andor': Everything About The Kenari Explained

Kenari children in the jungle of their homeworld, from the Andor series.

Image Source: Decider.com

WARNING: Minor Spoilers for Andor Episodes 1-3

The much anticipated, three-episode debut of Star Wars: Andor was this week. Right away, it starts filling us in on the backstory of Cassian Andor, who first appeared in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The planet Kenari, introduced through a series of flashbacks, appears to be Cassian’s home planet, where he lived until his teen years. So, what do we know about Kenari and its people?

Cassian was known as “Kassa” on Kenari, and he had a younger sister. Everyone in his group seemed young, but Kassa was probably the youngest of the older set. He went with the older members to investigate a crashed Imperial ship. The leader of the party was killed by the one survivor, and that survivor was killed by the Kenari. Maarva Andor found Kassa inside the wrecked ship and brought him off world to protect him from the Empire, who would surely kill anyone found near the wreckage.

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Kenari is an obscure planet in the middle rim territories under the Empire’s control. Most people have never heard of it. From what we can see, the planet is covered in forests, except where the Imperials have scarred the surface with a mining operation. This operation was abandoned by the Empire, however, after a mining accident that killed everyone involved. The Empire now considers the planet toxic.

Screenshot from Andor: a young Cassian looks over an abandoned work site on Kenari.

Image Source: Anime Filler Lists

The Kenari people seem to be indigenous, similar to the Tuskens on Tatooine or the Gungans on Naboo. The Kenari appear to live in tribal groups. They have their own language and do not even understand the galactic common tongue. They are what the Empire would refer to as primitives, and don’t have much in the way of technology; blowguns are their main weapons, and Cassian had apparently never seen his own reflection before sneaking onto the crashed imperial ship. He was so surprised and suspicious of the reflection that he smashed all of the reflective surfaces.

Kenari is an interesting new planet in the Star Wars universe, and a nice change of pace from all the desert planets we’ve seen across the Disney+ Star Wars shows so far. Hopefully some other Kenari people were able to escape the planet. A story about the Kenari diaspora would be fascinating.

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