Who Exactly Is Anto Kreegyr In Andor And Why Is He So Important?

"Andor" might not be getting a ton of viewers, but it's still one of the most highly-rated "Star Wars" titles to come out in recent years–including both the movies and the TV shows (per Forbes). For "Star Wars" fans, one of the biggest draws of "Andor" is that it gives us a glimpse of a time period not widely covered in previous "Star Wars" media: the time between the fall of the Republic and the formal start of the Rebel Alliance that would bring down the Galactic Empire.

Trust is a major theme of the first season. During this time, the galaxy is full of factions that oppose the Empire, but also don't necessarily trust each other, either. There's the group that will become the Rebel Alliance, which is led by Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) and Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly). There's also the Partisans, led by Saw Gerrera (Forrest Whitaker), as well as the Separatist Congress, the Ghorman resistance, and hundreds of independent guerrilla groups.

As Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) navigates this treacherous and occasionally confusing world, one name keeps popping up: Anto Kreegyr. While he hasn't appeared onscreen in person yet, he's still a major character in Season 1. 

As we see in Episode 11, "Daughter of Ferrix," Anto Kreegyr is a large, bearded man who leads a group of 30 freedom fighters. Throughout Season 1, Kreegyr has been planning a raid on an Imperial base located on the planet Spellhaus. But Kreegyr also has ties to the Clone Wars. In an earlier episode, when Luthen suggested that Saw team up with Kreegyr, Saw adamantly refused on the grounds that Kreegyr is a member of the Separatist Confederacy. While the Confederacy and Saw's Partisans have the same goal of opposing the empire, they had very different ways of arriving there.

During the Clone Wars, the Separatist Confederacy broke away from the Galactic Republic. It was founded by Count Dooku (Christopher Lee), supported by powerful trade corporations, and it relied on a droid army. After the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire, the Empire absorbed most of the Separatists except for a handful of holdouts, like Kreegyr's cell (per Star Wars Wiki). Saw, meanwhile, hails from the planet of Onderon, which the Confederacy once tried to conquer. During the fighting, the Confederacy wiped out Saw's family. That's why Saw is so opposed to working with Kreegyr, at least initially. 

The Kreegyr situation is just one example of the countless points of friction in the emerging Rebel Alliance. The rise of the Empire created allies out of former enemies, and it's no wonder why it takes the Rebels so long to get off the ground.

Anto Kreegyr is first mentioned in Episode 8, when Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) informs her superior at the Imperial Security Bureau, Partagaz (Anton Lesser), that she's captured a pilot who was running supplies to Kreegyr on the planet Kafrene (this is also the planet where Andor meets his contact Tivik in the movie "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story"). Meero discovers that Kreegyr is planning a raid on an Imperial energy facility on the planet Spellhaus. That puts the Imperials on Kreegyr's trail. At this point, the Imperials are having trouble distinguishing the different anti-Imperial factions from each other. They're not sure if Kreegyr is the same operator who carried out the Aldhani heist earlier in "Andor" Season 1, but they know the Spellhaus raid is coming, and they've set a trap for him.

Luthen learns about the trap from his spy inside the ISB, Lonni Jung (Robert Emms). Then, he learns from Saw that the success of the Aldhani heist has given Saw a change of heart about working with Kreegyr. Now, Saw wants to join Kreegyr's raid. To save Saw's life, Luthen is forced to reveal that he has a source within the ISB–which of course makes the naturally paranoid Saw wonder if Luthen has a source inside the Partisans,as well. Luthen doesn't, at least not that we know of. But it's yet another example of the inherent distrust between allies who are forced to work together. 

Ultimately, Saw agrees not to help Kreegyr and dooms him to his fate. We might never see Kreegyr in the flesh, but he's been an important part of Season 1 nonetheless.