There’s arguably no better symbol of Star Wars than the stormtrooper, the faceless black-and-white minions of the Galactic Empire. They’re notoriously bad shots, seemingly infinite, and as we learned in the sequel trilogy, potential heroes. But not all stormtroopers are alike. As any hardcore Star Wars gamer knows, there are countless varieties of troopers with different specialities, most of which are rarely, if ever, seen in live-action.
Andor Season 2, however, will employ a powerful stormtrooper variant who hasn’t been seen on screen in over half a decade, and it could be a sign of more to come. In a new preview clip, Cassian is shown fleeing an Imperial ship with a stolen TIE fighter. Check it out below.
One of the troopers Cassian has to evade is a range trooper, a variety first seen in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Range troopers are equipped with heavier, often fur-covered armor, and tend to wield long-range weapons. In Solo, they showed off one of their specialties by using magnetic boots to attach themselves to a fast-moving vehicle.
Solo was their biggest appearance, but it wasn’t their only one. They’ve also popped up in the Star Wars comics, including Hyperspace Stories #2, where Luke and Leia had to avoid them, and in Darth Vader: Black, White & Red #4, where they’re following Vader’s commands.
Range troopers in Solo’s train heist.
While the Solo troopers carried blasters, the Andor trooper is seen carrying a smart rocket, a weapon developed for Star Wars Battlefront and used again in Battlefront II. This is the first time it’s been seen in live-action, and it makes sense that a specialist like the range trooper would employ it.
Both the range trooper and the smart rocket are relatively deep cuts, and the clip’s decision to highlight them makes us wonder if we’ll see more such callbacks in Andor Season 2. We’ll only see more agents of Imperial tyranny as the series inches towards the events of Rogue One, and that may include more flavors of stormtrooper.
