The following contains spoilers for Andor Season 1, Episode 11, "Daughter of Ferrix," now streaming on Disney+.
After some early snags with reception, Star Wars fans couldn't be more pleased with Andor and its dark, slow-developing storyline. Its charismatic actors have made the series' grit and down-to-earth tone believable and enticing. Andy Serkis' Kino Loy and Stellan Skarsgård's Luthen Rael have been especially well-received characters, even if the former isn't an early form of Snoke.
Andor explores the formation of the Rebel Alliance in between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Cassian Andor (who was introduced in Rogue One) is the series' protagonist and namesake, but sometimes it's the smaller details that catch viewers' eyes. For example, the Star Wars Easter eggs in Luthen's shop were the major talking point of Episode 4, "Aldhani." Now, there's another small detail that everyone's talking about -- and rightly so. Here's how "Daughter of Ferrix" introduced a massive lightsaber-style weapon.
Andor was designed to be similar to Rogue One in that it features everyday characters making a difference in the galaxy. Because of that -- and because of the execution of Order 66 -- it was always unlikely that any Jedi will show up. The series' showrunner was actually forthcoming about the lack of fan-service cameos, though he was surprised by some sneaky Easter eggs. However, it's looking increasingly likely that Luthen Rael might actually be a Jedi. There was even more proof after the "Daughter of Ferrix" episode.
The episode featured the death of Maarva, but its most exciting scene was an escape by Luthen. He was leaving a meeting with Saw Gerrera, when he was pulled over by a Cantwell-class Arrestor Cruiser's tractor beam. There was a whole, dramatic scene, but as Luthen was escaping, he activated a brand-new weapon: sustained lasers that shot out from its sides of his ship like a futuristic version of a scythed chariot. As one would expect, the lasers sliced right through a pair of pursuing TIE fighters. That left Luthen free to make his escape, but the bigger question is what those laser weapons were.
The weapons definitely weren't regular laser cannons because they were sustained energy beams, not blasts. Some Star Wars fans have hypothesized that they were the same devices that were on the front of the Republic's LAAT Gunships. However, that can't be the case because the LAAT weapons were composite-beam lasers -- they focused multiple smaller lasers into one bigger beam. Luthen's ship didn't show any mini-beams feeding into a bigger one, so it seems to have some kind of new weapon previously unseen in the universe.
The other interesting fact to consider is the color of the shuttle's Darth Maul-style double lasers. They were red, but they were also two-toned. Red surrounded a while center -- just like a lightsaber. That could hint at the weapon's design. Typical laser cannons convert energy-rich gas into a particle beam, but kyber crystals produce the two-toned energy beam seen with lightsabers. Is it possible like the shuttle's weapons could have been produced by kyber crystals? That's a stretch because the Empire would be hunting down kyber crystals, but given the possibility that Luthen is a Jedi (and how he gave Cassian a kyber crystal), anything is possible. So, hopefully Andor will explain the laser weapon a little better because they're visually striking and could be important going forward.
The Season 1 finale of Andor debuts Wednesday, Nov. 23 on Disney+.