The Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy to Watch This Week
As we move into the last weeks of April, let’s take a look at the best sci-fi and fantasy available to watch this week. One show clearly stands above the rest, as we see the return of the most critically acclaimed Star Wars series ever to air on Disney+, and also travel back to a galaxy far, far away on the big screen.
Andor Season 2
Streaming on Disney+ April 22
One of the highest-rated Star Wars shows, ‘Andor’ is returning for a second season this April. When it first launched in 2022, the series quickly became one of the biggest critical hits for the franchise, and without doubt the best regarded of the live-action Disney+ shows. Now it’s coming to an end, and if the trailers are anything to go by, it will be satisfyingly epic.
The show follows Cassian Andor, a major character from the movie ‘Rogue One’, as he goes on a journey from self-serving mercenary to Rebel fighter. It also takes a look at the darker side of the Galactic Civil War, the lengths some of the rebels will go to in order to bring down the Empire, and the brutal acts of the Imperial regime as they try to maintain order.
This season will drop each week in three-episode clumps, which each take place in one year, leading right up to the events depicted in ‘Rogue One’. There will be some familiar faces making a return too, like Ben Mendelsohn as Orson Krennic, the architect of the Death Star, and Alan Tudyk as K-2SO, Andor’s droid companion.
So buckle up, it’s time for rebellion!
The Legend of Ochi
In theaters from April 25
Another original movie coming from indie studio A24, ‘The Legend of Ochi’ follows a young girl who lives in a village, where the inhabitants are warned not to go outside after dark, for fear of the legendary creatures called the Ochi. But when she finds a lost baby Ochi, she sets off on a quest to reunite it with its family.
I’m getting some ‘80s vibes from the trailers for this movie, not least because the baby Ochi looks suspiciously similar to the Mogwai from the 1984 movie ‘Gremlins’, but it also seems to have that sense of adventure and wonder that films like ‘Explorers’ and ‘E.T.’ have. So, maybe it will have some nostalgic value, or maybe it’s destined to become a classic in its own right.
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith 20th Anniversary Re-release
In theatres April 25
It might be hard to believe, but it’s been twenty years since ‘Revenge of the Sith’ was released. The third entry in George Lucas’s prequel trilogy that tells the story of Anakin Skywalker, his fall to the Dark Side, and eventual rebirth as the Sith lord Darth Vader.
If you’re a fan who missed the original release and want to see this for the first time on the big screen, or are just eager for any chance to see Star Wars in a cinema, then go check it out, and relive it all again, from the Battle of Coruscant, to Order 66, the destruction of the Jedi, rise of the Empire, and that epic Anakin-Obi Wan lightsaber duel!
That’s it for this week, check back next week for another rundown of the best sci-fi and fantasy to watch in theaters, on TV, and streaming.
