Through the first six episodes of its twelve-episode first season, Lucasfilm’s Star Wars streaming series Andor has fought the urge to drop character cameos into its developing story. Other than a reference here or there, the series has largely ignored the other goings on in the galaxy tied to the growing rebellion, choosing to focus on its own characters rather than name-drop or show-off characters from other Star Wars media. Episode 7 changed that in a fairly major way with the inclusion of one of the most memorable characters from one of Star Wars most beloved IPs.
As news of the heist on Aldhani spread throughout the galaxy, the Imperial Security Bureau convened on Coruscant to discuss their response. However, rather than Major Partagaz leading the meeting, a more senior officer was called in: Colonel Wulff Yularen. Fans of Star Wars: The Clone Wars will remember Yularen as the Republic Navy Admiral assigned to Anakin Skywalker. Though Yularen and Skywalker often disagreed, especially in their early endeavors together, the two grew to respect one another and became one of the Republic’s top teams.
Though he’s most well-known from his nearly two dozen appearances in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Yularen “first appeared” in Star Wars: Episode IV-A New Hope. While in actuality the character was unnamed, retcons over the years turned the character into Colonel Yularen of the ISB. Placing the Colonel in Andor during this time of galactic unrest, especially when the ISB will be facing major questions about its procedures, aligns with what’s known about the character. Canonically, after helping reform the ISB, Yularen took a post with the Naval Intelligence Agency during the events of Star Wars: Rebels. In his time there, Yularen helped Thrawn track down the traitor known as Fulcrum, who was revealed to be one of Yularen’s own students, Agent Kallus.
Voiced by Tom Kane in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Yularen is portrayed in Andor by actor Malcolm Sinclair. Given the character’s prominence in the time covered in Andor’s first season, Yularen’s appearance makes for a near-perfect cameo: one that isn’t too distracting fits the plot of the show and illustrates the connectivity of the series to the larger franchise. A+ for creator Tony Gilroy and team and Pablo Hidalgo, who works on keeping continuity between all the Star Wars projects.
