Kenari was an arboreal planet located in the galaxy's Mid Rim Territories. It was the homeworld of Cassian Jeron Andor, who was originally named Kassa.
A Mid Rim planet far from the attention of the Core Worlds, Kenari was a planet of lush jungles and grounds rich in valuable mineral deposits. Thus, the exploitation of these resources led to environmental devastation. Sometime during the Republic Era, large-scale mining operations began on Kenari to extract its rich mineral deposits, resulting in massive open pit mines that carved up the planet's surface, until its resources were thought spent. Various plunderers left their mark on Kenari over the course of many years, leaving desolation in their wake. Small tribes of orphans were left to survive on their own as a result. Kenari was considered a fairly obscure planet that many people had not heard of.
Mining operations occurred on Kenari during the reign of the Galactic Republic until it was thought the planet's resources had all been extracted. Afterward, the Republic declared the world off limits. Prior to the Clone Wars, a group of children made a life for themselves in the jungles of Kenari. Amongst them was a boy named Kassa, who later stated he been fighting as a revolutionary since the age of six, and his sister, Kerri.
Kassa and other children from his tribe attempted to investigate the wreck of a Republic transpo corsair that crash-landed on the planet near their village. The leader of the tribe was killed by a survivor of the wreck—a Republic officer who was wearing what would later be known as the symbol of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Kassa entered the wreck and began trying to destroy the interior out of anger and grief, but was forcibly evacuated by the scavengers Maarva and Clem Andor when it was discovered that a Republic frigate had entered the system and was coming to investigate the crash. Taking Kassa with them to protect him from being captured or killed by the Republic, Kassa was adopted by the couple and eventually took on the name Cassian Jeron Andor.
Despite the Republic having believed it was out of resources, the Galactic Empire came to maintain a presence on Kenari until a , which was believed to have killed all present. The world was abandoned after the disaster and labeled toxic. Placed under Imperial Prohibition, no one was allowed to land on the planet's surface. Cassian began a search for his lost sister on the hope she survived.
After plunderers left disaster in their wake, Kenari was solely inhabited by small tribes of orphans. One of these tribes lived in a village near water. Many of them were armed with a blowgun, bow, or a staff. This tribe used black paint and would traverse the wilderness to survey the ruins of the mining operations.
Kenari was first pictured in the teaser trailer for the Andor television series released on May 26, 2022. It first appeared in "Kassa," the first episode of the series, which aired on September 21, 2022.
In the anthology film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Cassian Andor says he has been in this fight since he was six years old, and Andor writer Tony Gilroy used this line as a jumping-off point to create the planet Kenari. He was very interested in weaving the origin story of the children on the planet. He knew why the mining operation was abandoned, but he did not want to get into it. There was originally a very articulated version explaining this, but it was cut for different reasons. For the episode "Reckoning," he had the idea that young Andor could leave Kenari at the same time adult Andor left Ferrix.
In an effort to reflect the Kenari tribe's circumstances, costume designer Michael Wilkinson envisioned that the children crafted their clothing by using natural elements as well as chopping up and repurposing remnants and cast-off uniforms left behind by their parents. The costumes were made to look like a primitive mix of work wear the kids customized with feathers, beads, trinkets, and elements they foraged from the urban environment. These details were meant to create a mixture of modern industry with organic jungle textures. Composer Nicholas Britell added rustling leaves into the Kenari recording so that the audience would hear the forest in the music. He managed to create a wistfulness as well as a sense of loss and memory.