The formation of the Alliance to Restore the Republic is a pivotal moment in the current Star Wars continuity, and the upcoming second season of Andor will delve into the events that led to its creation. This new season will explore the year-by-year process of building the Rebel Alliance, providing the most detailed look yet at the origins of the Rebellion as depicted in the original Star Wars trilogy. While there are similarities between this process and the formation of the Rebel Alliance in the old Expanded Universe, there are also significant differences.

Early Dissent to the New Order

Although a formal, organized resistance to the Galactic Empire did not exist on an interstellar scale until just a few years before the Battle of Yavin, the seeds of resistance were sown almost from the beginning of the Galactic Empire’s founding and the end of the Clone War. Emperor Palpatine took swift and brutal action against any potential dissent, targeting the member worlds of senators who had attempted to limit his emergency powers as Supreme Chancellor, known as the Delegation of 2,000. This approach led to the elimination or coercion of former signatories, suppressing senatorial resistance to Palpatine’s regime and allowing the Imperial armed forces to prioritize control through fear.

The Empire’s actions created incidents that fostered anti-Imperial sentiment, such as the Ghorman Massacre in 18BBY, where hundreds of protesters were brutally crushed by an Imperial warship. However, this approach also eradicated early pockets of resistance across the galaxy, including elements of the former Separatist movement and localized rebellions on worlds like Kashyyyk, Naboo, and Kamino. Although resistance movements continued to rise and fall, significant organized cooperation between them took time to develop beyond discussion.

The Starkiller Plot

The earliest indication of a formal Rebel Alliance emerged from a trio of worlds in the galactic core: Alderaan, Chandrila, and Corellia. Their senators, Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, and Garm Bel Iblis, had discussed resistance actions among their world’s cells in the early days of the New Order through a series of discussions on Coruscant known as the Cantham House talks. However, it would take almost 20 years for the trio to reunite and discuss open rebellion, this time in the Corellian system.

Unbeknownst to them, they were brought together by an unwitting turncoat. Bel Iblis, Mothma, and Organa, alongside other allies like the former Jedi and anti-Imperial mercenary Rahm Kota, were united to establish a broader resistance to the Empire in 2BBY by Galen Marek, the son of a Jedi slaughtered in the early days of the Empire. Marek had been secretly trained as the Sith apprentice Starkiller by Darth Vader, who believed he was genuinely uniting resistance leaders to help his master overthrow the Emperor. After the signing of the Corellian Treaty, Vader and Palpatine exposed Marek’s unintentional subterfuge.

Organa and his daughter Leia, as well as Bel Iblis, Mothma, and Kota, were captured at the signing of the Corellian Treaty and taken to the nearly completed Death Star for execution. However, they were liberated by Marek, who sought to atone for his own betrayal at Vader’s hands. Marek ultimately sacrificed his life in battle against Vader and the Emperor, buying the alliance’s new leadership time to escape to Kashyyyk. There, the signatories of the Corellian Treaty vowed to continue the rebellion in Marek’s stead, adopting the Marek family crest as their organization’s symbol.

Declaration of Rebellion, and the Galactic Civil War

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