Who Is Luthen Rael in Andor? Meet Stellan Skarsgård’s Character
Andor is the newest Star Wars story to hit Disney+, and that means that the series follows new characters and an entirely new storyline that we have never seen before. While we do know that the series will follow the earlier life of Cassian Andor and how he became an important part of the Rebel Alliance, we also know that the series will explore the people who helped shape his life. One such character was the mysterious figure named Luthen Rael, who is played by Stellan Skarsgård. So, who is Luthen Rael in Andor?
Luthen Rael was a human male character that worked as a buyer for salvaged and stolen parts from different ships. He was the person that Bix Caleen contacted whenever she had some parts and units to sell. However, he eventually revealed himself to be a part of the Rebels when he recruited Cassian.
Because the early part of Andor showed that Cassian was but a scavenger living a simple life on Ferrix, it became clear that someone had to recruit him into the Rebel Alliance. That man turned out to be Luthen Rael, who revealed that he knew a lot about Cassian for some odd reason. Now, with that said, let’s look at what we know about Stellan Skarsgård’s character in Andor.
Who Is Luthen Rael In Andor?
When Andor was announced as one of the projects that Lucasfilm was working on to become part of the many different Star Wars shows that are already on Disney+, it became apparent that the series was going to tell the story of Cassian Andor’s early life before the events of Rogue One. After all, his fate was sealed during the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and that means that the Andor series was always going to be a prequel story.
Of course, we saw early on in the Andor series that the story was going to follow his early life before he joined the Rebellion, as the “present-day” timeline of the series is set on 5 BBY, which is five years before the events of Rogue One and Episode IV: A New Hope. In that regard, we followed Cassian’s story while he was living the life of a simple scavenger that got into trouble with the Pre-Mor authorities when he was looking for a lead for his sister. And that was when his life turned around.
When Cassian killed two Pre-Mor guards in what was supposed to be an act of self-defense, he realized that he needed to lie low for a while until things cooled off. That was when he went to his friend, Bix Caleen, to ask her to contact her buyer so that he could sell something valuable. This turned out to be an NS-9 Starpath unit that he stole from an Imperial naval base a while back, and he was saving it for that occasion because selling it was only for emergency purposes. And realizing that he could make enough money to get out of Ferrix for a while, he wanted to sell it.
Bix, who was initially angry at Cassian for holding out on her and for keeping this Starpath unit from her, agreed to contact her buyer. This wasn’t something she usually did because she often collected a lot of different parts before selling them to this mysterious buyer.
However, because she wanted to do this favor for Cassian and because Andor said it himself that Bix told him the buyer wanted to meet him. As such, Bix did indeed contact the buyer, who was going to arrive the next morning. So, who is this mysterious buyer in Andor?
The mysterious buyer happened to be a man named Luthen Rael, who is played by veteran actor Stellan Skarsgård. He was first revealed in a scene wherein he was on his way to Ferrix onboard a passenger ship to the planet. Later on, he was revealed to be the man who was actually on his way to buy the NS-9 Starpath unit from Cassian Andor, who didn’t even know that the Pre-Mor authorities had already found out about him and were already on their way to apprehend him.
What Is Luthen Rael’s Role In Andor?
At first, when the buyer was mentioned by both Cassian and Bix, it looked like this could be just a simple man that doesn’t have anything to do with the larger scheme of things in the Andor storyline. But it became clear that he was not just another background character in the story when he seemed to be a man with a larger mission when the series introduced him.
Luthen, as the buyer, was not only interested in what Cassian had to sell but was more interested in the man himself. They first met in an abandoned warehouse where Luthen introduced himself as the buyer while Andor simply wanted to sell the NS-9 Starparth unit, which is a navigation unit used by ships. Of course, this was a valuable object because it was untraceable, but it did look like Luthen was more interested in Cassian than he was in the unit.
When they first met, Luthen told Cassian that he knew who he was and that he knew things about him that he might not even be aware of. That was when Luthen tried to offer him a chance to fight against the Empire and the different people and bodies associated with the tyrannical Imperial forces. But Cassian was confused at first because all he wanted to do was to sell the Starpath unit and find a way to escape Ferrix.
Still, the Pre-Mor forces were already all over the place, and that was when Luthen revealed that he always made sure to have a contingency plan of escape wherever he went. He helped Cassian fight off the Pre-Mor authorities and escaped the warehouse. And after eluding the rest of the Pre-Mor forces, they were able to get on a speeder bike and reach a ship that allowed both he and Cassian to escape Ferrix.
So, from what we can gather, it appears that Luthen Rael is actually a member of the Rebellion or is part of a splinter cell that opposed the rule of the Empire. We know that the Rebel Alliance was yet to be united as one at that point in time, but there were already different forces around the galaxy opposing the Empire. That means that Luthen Rael could be one of the leaders of a splinter cell that eventually joined up with the Rebel Alliance. And that could also mean that he was the one who inducted Cassian Andor into the Rebels before the events of Rogue One.
