Rowd

Rowd
Descriptive information
Species	Human
Pronouns	He/him
Hair color	Brown
Eye color	Blue
Skin color	Light
Chronological & political information
Affiliation(s)	Maya Pei Brigade

Rika: "You saw nothing. You were hiding in the bunker."

Crab: "That's a lie."

Rika: "I saw you."

Rowd: "Yeah, you tell him, Rika."

Gerdis: "Step off, Rowd!"

―Rika, Crab, Rowd, and Gerdis argue about what happened during the ambush. — ▶️ (file info)

Rowd was a human member of the Maya Pei Brigade when it was ambushed in 4 BBY. He was among a group of sixteen survivors who made it to the moon Yavin 4, where one member of the group left them stranded while claiming that he was taking their ship to search for survivors. The fifteen remaining survivors encountered and killed the Axis network pilot Porko after he shot at them. When Porko's comrade Cassian Andor arrived on Yavin 4 in a stolen TIE Avenger, Rowd and the other survivors took him captive but realized only he could fly the starfighter.

The group argued about what to do with Andor and the TIE, leading to the brigade member Crab shooting the group's pilot, Rika. Rowd then shot Crab in return, and the brigade split into two factions, with Rowd joining a group led by the brigade member Bardi that hid in the TIE Avenger while the group led by his rival Gerdis took Andor with them and hid in a wrecked ship nearby. After both groups sent out scouts to try and find Rika and Crab's remains, Rowd cut open a Yavin 4 melon to try and find a food source for his stranded faction. Bardi's group then began slowly turning the TIE Avenger to face the hiding place of Gerdis's group so they could use its weapons on them.

That night, Gerdis called out a challenge to Bardi and the two factions met between the two ships for a game of Five Hands to decide their differences. Bardi chose Rowd as his second and Gerdis chose the brigade member Bayso, with the four of them playing several rounds of the game. They then stopped at the sound of rumbling and a Yavinian doodar emerged from the nearby trees and snatched Gerdis and Bardi. Rowd was knocked to the ground but joined the others in firing in the doodar's direction, turning their fire to the TIE Avenger when the brigade member Flek warned them that Andor had escaped. Their fire did little to the TIE and Andor was able to take off in the starfighter, leaving Rowd and the others stranded once again.

Biography

Ambushed

"We got ambushed. We lost 6 ships, 40 fighters."

―Gerdis

Rowd was a human who served as part of the rebellious Maya Pei Brigade during the reign of the Galactic Empire. In 4 BBY, the brigade was ambushed, losing six starships and forty starfighters. Rowd was among a group of sixteen survivors who escaped and made it to the moon Yavin 4, where they came upon the pilot Porko, who was a member of the rebel Axis network, waiting at a rendezvous point. He shot at them and tried to flee, so they killed him. The survivors' self-proclaimed leader, Gerdis, claimed to have seen Maya Pei, the leader of the brigade, perish during the ambush, but the brother of fellow survivor Bardi took their ship and left Yavin, claiming that he was going to search for survivors.

Rowd and the Maya Pei Brigade captured Cassian Andor on Yavin 4.

Two days after they had arrived at the rendezvous point, Bardi's brother had not returned to the stranded rebels, but a TIE Avenger appeared overhead and Rowd and the other surviving brigade members hid in the undergrowth nearby. When the starfighter's pilot, Cassian Andor, landed and emerged, Gerdis called out to him and told him he was surrounded by the fifteen of them. Bardis then began arguing with Gerdis about revealing their numbers to the new arrival, who claimed not to be an Imperial and surrendered.

The brigade members then emerged and put Andor in binders, with Rowd and brigade member Crab lifting him from the ground so that Gerdis could question him. Instead of getting answers, Gerdis and Bardi began arguing again and Andor began questioning them about what happened to Porko. The brigade's only pilot, Rika, then discovered a TIE pilot helmet and brought it before the rest of the group as evidence that Andor was an Imperial.

A broken brigade

"Your brother dumped us here and ran away, and you wanna talk about trust?"
"He went back for survivors."
"Nobody believes that."
"Rika, Neek, Nazy, Rowd… Oh, we know what really happened."

―Gerdis and Bardi

The Maya Pei Brigade debated what to do with Andor and the TIE Avenger.

Rowd and fellow brigade member Tick then wandered near the Avenger as Gerdis, Bardi, and Rika inspected the inside with Andor and realized that only Andor could pilot the ship. Rowd and his comrade Musk then gathered at the starfighter's entry ramp as the brigade member Plug asked those inside if there was anything to eat on board. With Crab guarding Andor elsewhere, Rowd and the rest of the group then gathered to discuss what to do with the Avenger.

When the option of taking multiple trips on it to get off the moon was raised, Gerdis and Bardi began arguing about if Bardi's brother had abandoned them, with Gerdis claiming no one believed that he was coming back. Bardi then named Rowd, Rika, Neek and Nazy as brigade members who knew the truth before Andor interrupted, having learned who the rebels were from Crab.

Revenge for Rika

"Skug!"

―Rowd shoots Crab

Andor, who was also part of the Axis network, revealed that he and Porko had been stealing the Avenger for the rebels and that they had supplied the Maya Pei Brigade in the past, although he refused to reveal who specifically within the rebellion he worked for. Andor was then taken away and guarded while Rowd, Rika, Crab, Bardi, and Gerdis entered the Avenger's cockpit. While Gerdis and Bardi argued about what to do with Andor, Rika discussed the starfighter's controls with Rowd and Crab. Rika then pressed a button and accidentally activated the ship's blaster cannons. After night fell, the whole group gathered again and began arguing about who was in charge, with Gerdis claiming that he was leader as he had always been Pei's number two.

Rowd shot Crab in retaliation for the death of Rika.

Rowd objected that he wanted to hear from Pei herself, but Gerdis and Crab countered that she was dead, which Nazy and Rika objected to, with Rika claiming that Crab had seen nothing in the ambush as he hid in a bunker. Rowd backed Rika against Crab, with Gerdis telling Rowd to back off, but as the others tried to continue the discussion, Crab drew his blaster on Rika and demanded she repeat the claim and call him a liar. Gerdis tried to calm Crab, but failed, and when Rika taunted Crab he shot her. Calling Crab a skug, Rowd then shot him in the chest and a gunfight broke out among the survivors.

Yavin standoff

Tick: "Eat it."

Flu: "Why me?"

Musk: "You'll eat anything. You ate those trogs."

Flu: "That was a dare."

Rowd: "Okay, I dare you."

―Bardi's faction of the Maya Pei Brigade discuss eating a Yavin 4 melon — ▶️ (file info)

Rowd and a group led by Bardi fell back toward the TIE Avenger, while Gerdis and his followers fell back to a wrecked Breon HOY-39 with Andor. With both groups hiding in the ships, it began to rain, and each faction sent a member out to crawl through the battlefield and try to find out if Rika and Crab had survived. Bardi's group sent out Nazy, and when he had not returned after some time, Rowd asked Bardi if he had seen anything. Nazy then shouted back that there was nothing to find, but Bardi urged him to continue and then began blaming Gerdis's group for having stolen Rika's body.

Rowd dared Flu to eat a Yavin 4 melon after he refused due to the smell.

Snee, who Gerdis's group had sent out to search, then discovered Crab's severed foot, all that remained of him after the creatures of Yavin had found his body. When Snee called out in horror, Nazy shot at her and then began fleeing back toward the TIE Avenger as Rowd, Bardi, and Tick provided covering fire. Nazy then revealed Rika's goggles to Rowd and the others, claiming it was all that was left. The next morning, fog descended between the two opposing factions of the brigade as each tried to find something to eat.

Rowd split open a Yavin 4 melon with a machete, producing a smell that caused the other members of the group to retch and recoil, and then threw part of it to the brigade member Flu. Flu refused to eat it and threw it to Tick, but Musk pointed out that Flu would usually eat anything and brought up his consumption of trogs. Flu objected that he had only eaten the trogs because he was dared, so Rowd dared Flu to eat the melon. Bardi then grabbed the melon, hesitated, and took a bite.

Turning a TIE

Musk: "It moved!"

Nazy: "Check it."

Bardi: "Rowd?"

Rowd: "Another few centimeters."

―Bardi's faction shift the TIE Avenger — ▶️ (file info)

Rowd and his allies tried to turn the TIE Avenger to face Gerdis's faction.

Bardi's faction then tied ropes to the wing of the TIE Avenger and began working as a team to turn the ship toward Gerdis's faction. Gritting his teeth with effort, Rowd pulled on the wing while others used branches for leverage. When Musk cried out that the ship had moved, Bardi had Rowd check their progress and, using a vine to test his sightline, he confirmed that they shifted the Avenger a few centimeters. The group then began pulling again, but were interrupted by blaster fire from Gerdis's group, who had learned of Bardi's faction's plan. Rowd returned fire while falling back into cover, crouching behind a branch.

That night, Gerdis began yelling discouragement at Bardi's group while the latter sat around a campfire by the TIE. When their foe mentioned that they would not be able to survive on the Yavin 4 melons, Rowd questioned how their opponents knew about the food source, with Flu correctly concluding that they had sent scouts to sneak up and spy on them. Gerdis then issued a challenge to Bardi, and both groups emerged from their ships to meet at the center of the rendezvous point, weapons raised. Andor was left in the Breon HOY-39 guarded by the brigade member Flek.

Seconds to disaster

"Pick your second."
"Rowd, step up."

―Gerdis and Bardi

Rowd acted as Bardi's second while playing Five Hands on Yavin 4.

Gripping his weapon and a lantern, Rowd stared at his rivals with a hostile look as they approached. Both groups then agreed to drop their weapons, doing so slowly and deliberately as Gerdis counted down from three. Bardi and Gerdis then agreed to play a game of Five Hands using Roski rules to decide their conflict. Bardi chose Rowd as his second, while Gerdis picked the brigade member Bayso. Moving up beside Bardi and Gerdis, Rowd stared Bayso down and the pair then began pounding their fists into their palms.

Bardi and Gerdis then joined in and on a count of three all four presented hand signals, with the group repeating this twice more before declaring a tie. After a second tied round, Andor subdued Flek and escaped in the undergrowth toward the TIE Avenger as the game continued. The group then paused at the sound of rumbling from the nearby trees, moving to investigate before a Yavinian doodar charged into them and grabbed Gerdis and Bardi in its jaws before continuing into the foliage. Having been knocked to the ground by the creature, Rowd cried out directions as the other brigade members opened fire in the direction the doodar had left.

Rowd and the other Maya Pei Brigade survivors were left stranded on Yavin 4.

Flek then broke free of the binds Andor had put on him and rushed to warn the others of the pilot's escape, causing Rowd and the others to turn their fire on the TIE Avenger as Andor shot Flu inside and then began to take off. The group's blasters merely bounced off the ship, and they soon stopped firing as Andor piloted the vessel off of Yavin, leaving Rowd and the others stranded once again. Andor's encounter with the Maya Pei Brigade on Yavin 4 showed him how far the rebellion was from acting as an organized force.

Personality and traits

Rowd: "I wanna hear it from Maya."

Gerdis: "That might take a while."

Crab: "She's dead."

―Rowd, Gerdis, and Crab argue about leadership of the surviving May Pei Brigade members — ▶️ (file info)

Rowd refused to believe Gerdis's claim that Maya Pei had died and backed Rika against him and Crab when they argued about it, killing Crab in revenge when he shot Rika. He sided with Bardi when the brigade survivors split and was chosen as his second when the rival factions faced off in a game of Five Hands. Rowd had light skin, brown hair, and blue eyes.

Equipment

"You can stop right there! You got 15 blasters pointed at you right now!"

―Gerdis warns Andor

On Yavin 4, Rowd carried a blaster rifle and wore a gray vest with a black scarf, a green jacket, green pants, a brown belt, and black boots.

Behind the scenes

Jack Bandeira portrayed Rowd in Andor.

Rowd was portrayed by Jack Bandeira in the live-action Disney+ series Star Wars: Andor, first appearing in "One Year Later" and Sagrona Teema," the first and second episodes of the show's second season, which both aired on April 22, 2025. The Yavin jungle clearing scenes involving the Maya Pei Brigade were shot at Longcross Studios.

Costume designer Michael Wilkinson and concept artist Glyn Dillon worked on the costumes for the Maya Pei Brigade, treating them as threadbare survivalists who needed to contrast from the luxury refinement of costumes on Chandrila, the sophistication of costumes on Coruscant, and the agricultural workwear of Mina-Rau, all other settings on the show. Rowd and the other brigade members were made to appear sweaty and grubby by chief textile artist Jackie Moody and her breakdown team. Prior to the release of the episodes, Rowd was revealed in the first public trailer for the series on February 24, 2025.

Appearances

• Star Wars: Andor — "One Year Later" (First appearance)
• Star Wars: Andor — "Sagrona Teema"

Sources

• Andor | Season 2 Trailer | Streaming April 22 on Disney+ on the official Star Wars YouTube channel (backup link) (First pictured)
• Andor | Cassian Andor | Final Season Streaming April 22 on Disney+ on the official Star Wars YouTube channel (backup link)
• Star Wars Celebration LIVE! 2025 - DAY 2 on the official Star Wars YouTube channel (backup link)
• Andor Season 2 | We Ask the Questions | Now Streaming on Disney+ on the official Star Wars YouTube channel (backup link)

Notes and references

In other languages

• français
• 日本語