You might be forgiven, given Mon Mothma’s increased importance to modern Star Wars, for thinking that her homeworld of Chandrila was one of the galaxy far, far away’s most explored locales, up there with the likes of Coruscant, Hoth, Tatooine, Alderaan, and more for their pivotal roles across the Skywalker Saga. But even now, after years of potential study in both the old expanded universe and contemporary canon alike, Chandrila at large is a mystery: and even its role in the Rebel Alliance has largely been rendered symbolic rather than particularly material.
Andor‘s upcoming second season will mark the first time we’ve actually visited Chandrila on-screen in current Star Wars canon, the world’s importance to continuity beyond it being more for its role in the early days of the New Republic rather than the time of the Empire. But even in the EU, Chandrila remained, much like its erstwhile Senator, more of a figurehead of resistance to the Empire, rather than necessarily a truly vital player in the Alliance to Restore the Republic. So what do we know about the planet’s role in the Galactic Civil War in either very of Star Wars story? The answer is ultimately not much, which itself says a lot.
Chandrila’s Role in Star Wars Canon
In both renditions of its history, Chandrila is a key player in the foundation of the Republic. One of the major worlds in the galactic core, despite its proximity to the heart of what would become galactic civilization, little has been really explored about the world until the time of the mainline Star Wars movies. Even Chandrila’s role in the Clone War is largely left untouched—although we did at least learn recently during Alexander Freed’s novel Mask of Fear that its capital, Hanna City, was targeted by extended orbital bombardment during the conflict, largely resisted by planetary shielding.
This mystery continues throughout the rise of the Empire itself. Although Mon Mothma’s public history of opposition to the new Emperor, and her legacy in Padmé Amidala’s Delegation of 2,000 would make her a prime player in the Imperial Senate’s attempts to block overreach of power, it wouldn’t be until Mothma’s own departure from office in the wake of the Imperial military’s massacre on Ghorman, and the formal announcement of the Alliance to Restore the Republic in 2BBY, that Chandrila would become known as a sympathetic world to the Rebel cause. Even then, its direct role in the war remains obscure—the world was simply one among thousands that suffered in the shadow of the Empire, rather than being a particularly focused target. Chandrila was considered an important locale to the Alliance in terms of materiel and safe supply caches, its reputation was largely symbolic due to its connection to Mon Mothma—a symbolism that would in part lead the world, alongside Mon Cala, to be on the list of intended targets for the second Death Star after the Rebel fleet’s destruction over Endor.
Instead, Chandrila’s importance in the rebooted Star Wars canon comes with a much clearer role in the wake of the events of Return of the Jedi. With Coruscant embroiled in planetary civil war in the wake of the Emperor’s death, it would be Chandrila that would become the capital of the reformed Republic, its first senate being called to quorum in Hanna City, with Mothma as its first Chancellor. In the following year, Chandrila would become an important military and legislative hub for the nascent Republic as military campaigns against the Imperial remnant continued. But an attempted terror attack by brainwashed liberated Imperial prisoners at peace talks between the New Republic and the Empire saw the first attempt to bring an end to the Galactic Civil War crumble, and Chandrila’s position as the heart of the New Republic in jeopardy.
Although it would remain the Republic’s capital, even after Coruscant’s liberation and the formal end of the war with the signing of Galactic Concordance, the Republic Senate itself would establish a rotating residency across member worlds, relocating every year until the body’s destruction on Hosnian Prime in 34ABY.
Chandrila in Star Wars‘ Expanded Universe
Much more is known about Chandrila’s time during the rise of the Empire in the Expanded Universe (largely through the sheer volume of content), but even then what we did learn of the planet was ultimately a mirror in prelude to what was going to come in rebooted continuity. In the EU, Chandrila was still a largely symbolic representative of resistance to the Empire, but a far more proactive one: although tensions between itself and other worlds involved in the early formalization of the Alliance (namely Corellia and Alderaan) once again largely made Mon Mothma a political figurehead of the organization rather than a particular military force, Chandrila was a key world for Rebel recruitment and supplies throughout the Empire’s rule.
It would take the Rebellion’s destruction of the first Death Star to really make Chandrila a particularly targeted world by Imperial effort, however. After Mon Mothma’s replacement as its representative in the Imperial Senate, Canna Omonda, was executed a year after the Battle of Yavin for publicly decrying the Emperor’s dissolution of the governing body, Chandrila—which had already been subject to retaliatory tariffs on luxury agricultural exports by COMPNOR (the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order)—was subject to blockade by the Imperial Navy.
Although Rebel forces, lead by Rogue Squadron, managed to liberate the port city of Nayli from ground assault and supply restrictions, Imperial forces in the sector stationed fleets around the nearby worlds of Brentaal IV and Corulag, effectively threatening Chandrila with a larger planetary blockade that effectively kept the planet out of open participation in the Galactic Civil War. It wouldn’t be until after the Battle of Endor (just as would be the case in revised continuity, victory for the Empire would’ve meant a full planetary invasion of Chandrila and its eventual destruction by the second Death Star) and the liberation of Coruscant itself that the blockade would be lifted, allowing Chandrila’s provisional government to formally join the nascent New Republic.
Chandrilan Society, and a Planet of Politics
The relative lack of exploration of Chandrila—either from its real lack of focus in current Star Wars canon beyond Mon Mothma herself, or the planet’s blockade in the EU largely leaving it as a primary factor in that rendition of the Galactic Civil War—has left the world’s society likewise only touched on in broad strokes. In many ways, Star Wars‘ love of single-biome worldbuilding applied to Chandrilan culture in the small ways it was touched upon: because or primary lens on the world was through the existence of Mon Mothma, herself largely only explored as a political leader of the Alliance and eventually the New Republic, what information about Chandrila we learned would become filtered through her. Mon Mothma was into politics? Okay then, Chandrila is now an entire planet of politics, with a cultural reputation for robust debate and interest in civics to match, its people defined by outspoken political candor.
That at least might change a little when we visit the world for the first time in Andor season two. Much of the show’s prior, but brief exploration of Chandrilan culture—again framed through the perspective of Mon Mothma’s personal interaction with it—touched on a divide between modern cosmopolitan society and ancient cultural traditions, especially those around arranged marriage. Chandrilan culture, when not expressly about politics, had a similar undertone in the EU: an agricultural world, Chandrila was known for its steadfast nurturing of the planetary ecology, advocating that its natural world could co-exist with the technological advancement of interstellar society.
There’s no doubt what we see of Chandrila in Andor will continue to focus on that aspect of the traditional elements Mon Mothma bristles against, moreso than anything else. But beyond being our first time to see the world on-screen, it’ll at least add some much needed texture to a significant place in Star Wars‘ galaxy.
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