Ferrix

Ferrix was a sparsely populated and barren planet, dominated by vast and desolate wastelands, rocky mountains, and oceans of water. The wastelands came to be tamed and colonized by the population, harboring farmlands, industrial scrapyards, and sprawling cities made of brick and stone. The planet was frigid and by the winter months, the ground became covered in layers of snow.

During the Clone Wars, Ferrix was a part of the Galactic Republic. In the direct aftermath of the war, however, the Galactic Empire rose in its place and established a presence on Ferrix. In 18 BBY, clone stormtroopers were on the planet, but were instead met with an anti-Imperial protest dubbed the "Rix Road protest." In town, a large contingent of clone stormtroopers were pelted with stones as they marched through the main square, prompting their officer to order the troopers to raise their weapons against the populace. Clem Andor, a local citizen, was mistakenly accused of having taken part in the protest due to being among the crowd as he was trying to calm them down and was subsequently hanged in the town's square. Later, Cassian attempted to attack several clone stormtroopers with a baton in retaliation for his father's hanging, but was instead caught and arrested.

At some point, the Empire allowed the Consolidated Holdings of Preox-Morlana Corporation to run affairs on Ferrix while, though it was not regularly patrolled, rather being left to its own devices.

In 5 BBY, Clem Andor's son Cassian traveled to the Preox-Morlana headquarters on Morlana-1 in an attempt to locate his missing Kenari sister, Kerri. During his travel he was confronted by two corpos of the Preox-Morlana's corporate security branch, the Pre-Mor Enforcement, and during the ensuing altercation he was forced to kill them both. Pre-Mor Deputy Inspector Syril Karn identified and tracked the fleeing Cassian to his Ferrixian hometown and soon arrived to arrest him with a Pre-Mor Security Inspection team led by Sergeant Linus Mosk. Andor had however secured a meeting with rebel spymaster Luthen Rael thanks to the intervention of salvage yard owner Bix Caleen in order to sell him a stolen Imperial N-S9 Starpath Unit, the sale taking place just as the Pre-Mor units' mobile Tac-Pods were landing on the city's scrapyards. A heavily armed Rael helped Andor escape the trap the corpos were setting up for him and thanks to a distraction afforded by a remotely-controlled explosive-riddled speeder bike the duo were able to escape the city on board the spymaster's Fondor Haulcraft, leaving many injured or dead corpos behind them.

Following news of the incident, the Imperial Security Bureau officer responsible for the Morlani system, Lieutenant Supervisor Blevin was dispatched to the Pre-Mor's Corporate Security Headquarters on Morlana One where he met with the trio of officers responsible for the disaster, leading to Ferrix being placed under direct Imperial authority once more. A new Imperial garrison was placed on Ferrix a day after the incident with Preox-Morlana personnel removed from the system and re-assigned to other duties and the city hotel being taken over as the new Imperial headquarters on Ferrix. Captain Vanis Tigo was assigned by Blevin with overseeing the setup of the day-to-day Imperial Operations on Ferrix and was promoted to Prefect for the region after his request. With growing conflict between Blevin and fellow ISB Supervisor Dedra Meero during the regional supervisors' forums on Coruscant, ISB Major Partagaz gave control of the sector to Meero due to his agreeing with her suspicion of a growing, organized rebel network being responsible for the incident on Ferrix.

The Imperial occupation caused much discomfort to the rebellious people of Ferrix. Stormtrooper units patrolled the once quiet streets and armed speeders accompanied by Imperial security troopers guarded all government buildings. Prominent resident and former president of the citizen society Daughters of Ferrix Maarva Andor vowed to overthrow Imperial rule, inspired by the attack on the Imperial headquarters on the planet Aldhani, which unbeknownst to her was partly carried out by her son Cassian who was recruited by Luthen Rael on his network. Maarva made daily excursions on secret tunnels and passages next to the former hotel which housed the Prefecture headquarters but was severely injured and forced to stop. Her injury along with her age caused her to fall ill, but she refused to take the medicine doctor Mullmoy had prescribed her and eventually passed away.

During her funeral procession, a holographic message she had pre-recorded and broadcast by her droid B2EMO inspired the people of Ferrix to rise up against the Empire and form a resistance movement, creating a riot spontaneously erupting as residents charged the Imperial barrier. An improvised explosive device thrown at the barrier by a resident turned the riot into a bloodbath as Imperials and Ferrixians were killed by the explosion, leading to Imperial troops being ordered to fire indiscriminately into the crowd.

Ferrix's exports were mainly scrap and salvaged tech. Many humans on Ferrix worked to salvage materials from decommissioned ships such as the Venator-class Star Destroyer. Each worker was given a different set of gloves, with the gloves being hung on a wall before and after work. Ferrixians played songs at funerals and other public events using adhoc bands and amateurish musicians, "Unto Stone We Are" being one such piece.

The daily routine on Ferrix was to go to work when the Time Grappler hit the beskar anvil using his hammers and to finish work when the Time Grappler hit the beskar anvil again. After this, the people of Ferrix would drink in cantinas or go back to their homes. The workers of Ferrix adhered to this structured schedule. Overall, workers trusted each other, were cooperative and respectful, and were generally friendly amongst each other. They stored their gear together in a public space, with each worker's gloves being hung on a large wall all together.

Ferrix was first pictured in the sizzle reel for the Andor television series, which was released on December 10, 2020. It was first identified in a LEGO set reveal during Celebration Anaheim. The planet first appeared in "Kassa," the first episode of the series, which aired on September 21, 2022. From the start, executive producer and writer Tony Gilroy found it important for Ferrix to have an immersive culture and a strong cultural heart.

Gilroy, who stated the "mental build" of Ferrix took two years to develop, wanted the audience to understand that the Ferrixians came together and looked after each other. Production designer Luke Hull and Gilroy wanted to design an environment different from familiar Star Wars locations. They did not want to make the location a town in a desert, and Hull was ardent on it not being a frontier town. To show the planet's culture, Gilroy and the crew spent a long time creating the planet's social structure, hierarchies, rules, and allegiances. Concept artist Scott McInnes created concept art of Venator-class Star Destroyers being dismantled on Ferrix, and artist Vincent Jenkins created concept art of Cassian Andor preparing to shoot stormtroopers. Artist Chester Carr and Hull created a sketch of Rael and Cassian Andor escaping on a speeder bike. Hull also made sketches of the North Steps, the Ferrix hotel, the interior of the Andor household, and Rael on Ferrix.

To help ground the show's storytelling in a relatable human complexity and appeal to viewers, an entire eight-acre city was built as a backlot set in Little Marlow, Buckinghamshire. Hull's team referenced Amsterdam in the 1920s, the period in which the city featured simple geometric and abstract shapes. Everything grew off of knowing Ferrix needing a big main street. After deciding Ferrix would be built, Hull's team had to find an overall look that stayed true to the franchise in a way that was not too dystopian. Due to the planet's economy of salvaging ship parts and metal, Hull envisioned the place with a sturdiness. Ferrix reminded him of longshoremen in Belfast, Northern Ireland building ships. Hull's team's origin for Ferrix was it began as a small outpost that gradually grew and expanded out of the hillside as the population grew. Hull made sure that the set felt like a working town with a small community.

During planning, Hull's team accounted for the computer graphics and VFX that would be added later, and it was built into the design. Hull's team team decided to build the town out of bricks, which had not been done in Star Wars before. Hull kept the color of the brick unchanged because he thought the clay and earthiness played into who the Ferrixians were. His team retrofitted the idea of dead Ferrixians' ashes getting baked into a brick and being put into the town. During the construction of Ferrix, the crew noticed that Martian-like reds kept coming in, so Lanzarote in the Canary Islands became a good starting place to create the wider environment of Ferrix. Scenes on Ferrix were also filmed in Lanzarote's Green Lagoon; Salinas de Janubio, the Islands' largest salt flat; and other nearby locations.

The backlot set was a functional shape full of usable buildings that were accessible through doors and windows. The sets included palatial homes, high-class brothels, and housing projects. Maarva Andor's house was crafted to explain her character. The interior and exterior of the house were the same set, making it fully three-dimensional. The set designers and costume shop collaborated to create the wall of gloves. Hull tried to make the Easter eggs subtle and fit into the show. The Ferrix set managed to impress executive producer Kathleen Kennedy and director Toby Haynes.

Costume designer Michael Wilkinson and his team spent a long time to establish carefully curated palettes of textures and colors for Ferrix to make the information clear for the viewers. They infused every costume with individualism to make it reflect the character it was worn by. During the beginning, Wilkinson told his team to consider many unique details to inform the design, including each character's job and source of clothing, and how their clothing reflects what they do, who they are, and what they value. Some of the costumes' silhouettes drew inspiration from Japanese workwear, which were then abstracted and modernized. Wilkinson said that having costumes from an authentic and culturally resonant place would give the audience something they could connect with.

The costume department also created logos and symbols for Ferrix's different brands, repair shops, and individual businesses, which deepened the planet's lore and tangibility. When the team created the Ferrixian clothing, they chose what they deemed the coolest and most interesting workwear elements between quilting, safety gear, and protective materials. Some of the stand-out characters, such as Bix Caleen, were given distinguishable silhouettes to help them stand out from a crowd. For the finale episode "Rix Road," the red was amped up to make it a very strong symbol of the spirit of Ferrix.

Hull estimated that around 80-85% of the scenes on Ferrix were shot on the backlot set. According to Gilroy, everything on Ferrix was filmed first. Haynes and the actors spent about a month shooting his six episodes' Ferrix scenes. After Christmas, it was the coldest part of the shoot. When it snowed, the crew used heaters to burn the snow and keep the continuity. When Denise Gough, the actor who plays Dedra Meero, first shot on the Ferrix set, she was amazed by the high level of detail.

Visual effects for Ferrix was split between and Industrial Light & Magic. Hybride worked on the town, based on the set, which was extended out to the larger city. Green screens were used for certain Ferrix locations. ILM worked on what they called the north side big yard and the surrounding areas. They also built up the planet's architecture and made a design language for Ferrix. ILM was responsible for extending the Ferrix set to make it a busy hustling place with many workers and sparks everywhere. They made sure there was always something moving in the background to make it look like there was stuff going on all the time. For the ships on Ferrix, ILM started by referencing ships in the archives.

Composer Nicholas Britell inserted several metal sounds throughout Ferrix because of the masonry and metallurgy present in the planet's culture. Britell and Gilroy made some of those sounds together using the pipes in the latter's basement.

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