Technology

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• The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered has been officially revealed, and it's available right now
• The game is on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Game Pass
• It has been rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5 and features all-new character models, reworked mechanics, a lighting system, and more

Bethesda Softworks has officially unveiled The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, and it's playable right now.

Following a series of recent leaks, today's special Bethesda broadcast finally confirmed that the remaster of the 2006 game is real and is now available on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Game Pass.

The standard edition costs $49.99 / £49.99 and it's $59.99 / £59.99 for the Deluxe Edition. The Deluxe Edition comes with the base game plus additional content in the form of new quests, armor, horse armor, and weapons.

According to Bethesda, the game has been rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5 in collaboration with Virtuos to "achieve our visual goals" and features all-new character models, a new lighting system that simulates how light interacts with the environment, and a rework of the game mechanics.

Gameplay has also been completely modernized, along with UI and UX, audio, and environments, like cities, woodland, and dungeons, but still features the original game's identity.

"This is Oblivion in its most complete form," one developer said in the broadcast.

Bethesda boss Todd Howard also made an appearance to talk about the remaster 20 years after the original was released, and also reaffirmed that the studio is "working on the sixth chapter," aka The Elder Scrolls 6.

"...What's great about The Elder Scrolls is being able to look back at all of the chapters: Skyrim, Morrowind, Oblivion, Daggerfall, Arena. Each of them try to define role-playing games and open-world games for their generation," he said.

"Oblivion was a real defining moment in the series and how we make games as a studio."

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• The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has granted the first licenses to three companies to provide VPN services
• The new framework comes as Pakistanis increasingly use VPNs to bypass the X ban and other internet restrictions
• The Authority now urges all VPN providers to obtain a license to avoid potential service disruptions

Pakistan's telecom authority continues its quest to regulate the use of unlicensed VPNs across the country despite pushbacks.

On April 18, 2025, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) granted the needed license to three companies in order to provide their services in the country. The Authority now urges all VPN providers operating in Pakistan to obtain a license to avoid potential service disruptions.

All this comes as increasingly more Pakistanis have been using some of the best VPN services to access X, which has been blocked since February 2024, and other restricted social media platforms.

The end of unlicensed VPNs in Pakistan?

"The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has commenced the licensing of Virtual Private Network (VPN) service providers under the Class License for the Provision of Data Services in Pakistan. As part of this process, PTA has already granted Class Licenses to provide VPN services to three companies," the PTA wrote in an official announcement.

The plan for a new licensing category for VPN providers was first unveiled in December last year in a bid to regulate Pakistan VPN usage. Companies need to apply for a permit to operate within the country and avoid potential blocks.

As the Pakistani English-speaking newspaper The Dawn pointed out at the time, the PTA plan envisages local companies to provide VPN or proxy services to citizens, instead of foreign companies, which are more difficult to control.

This may mean the anonymity of Pakistani VPN users could be compromised when using a licensed provider as authorities may be able to monitor VPN traffic.

A post shared by PTA (@ptaofficialpk)

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As mentioned earlier, the Authority is now urging all VPN providers operating in the country to apply for the needed license.

"Timely licensing will help prevent potential service disruptions and ensure uninterrupted access for their customers," wrote the PTA.

VPN services remain a necessary tool at the time of writing to keep accessing all the main social media platforms in Pakistan, including X, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and even Bluesky.

Given last year's failures in successfully regulating VPN usage in Pakistan – authorities were forced to withdraw the ban on unregistered services due to a lack of legal grounds to ban VPNs – it's difficult to predict what's at stake for VPN users in the country.

Talking to TechRadar back in December, Proton VPN confirmed that if the PTA's VPN framework is eventually enforced for all providers, the company's response would be to replace its physical servers with its Smart Routing technology, as the company did in India in 2022.

TechRadar has approached some of the top providers for comment on the matter, but we are still waiting for a response at the time of writing.

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It's a potentially pivotal match in the race for Champions League qualification at the Etihad today.

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• The group struck government, air control, and telco firms in Southeast Asia
• Victims were not named
• Lotus Panda used never-before-seen infostealers and loaders

Lotus Panda, a Chinese state-sponsored threat actor, managed to compromise multiple organizations in a number of Southeast-Asian countries, in a campaign that took place between mid-2024 and early 2025.

Cybersecurity researchers from the Symantec Threat Hunter Team said the organizations included government agencies, air traffic control organizations, telecom operators, and a construction company in one country, a news agency in another, and an air freight organization in another. The victim countries, or organizations, were not named.

In the attack, the group used never-before-seen malware, loaders, credential stealers, and reverse SSH tools.

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Chinese cyber-spies

Lotus Panda allegedly abused legitimate executables from antivirus companies Trend Micro and Bitdefender, using them to sideload malicious DLL files which dropped and decrypted second-stage payloads. The threat actor also allegedly updated Sagerunex, a group-exclusive tool that can steal sensitive information and exfiltrate it, encrypted, to a third-party server. We don’t know how the group made the initial breach, though.

Other notable tools used in this campaign are infostealers ChromeKatz and CredentialKatz.

"The attackers deployed the publicly available Zrok peer-to-peer tool, using the sharing function of the tool in order to provide remote access to services that were exposed internally," Symantec said. "Another legitimate tool used was called 'datechanger.exe.' It is capable of changing timestamps for files, presumably to muddy the waters for incident analysts.

Lotus Panda is a known state-sponsored group, sometimes reported as Billbug, Lotus Blossom, Thrip, Spring Dragon, and Bronze Elgin. The group has allegedly been active since 2009, and is focused primarily on cyber-espionage. Its usual targets are government agencies, defense organizations, telcos and the media in Southeast Asia.

There were also reports of Lotus Panda attacks in the United States and Australia, too, which could suggest that the group is looking to expand its reach.

Via The Hacker News

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Google said the process happens entirely on your device, and that it doesn't have access to any images.

• 1Password has revealed new tools for its XAM platform
• Users will benefit from compliance and governance features
• Agentic AI security has also been improved with new SDK

1Password, a leader in Extended Access Management (XAM) and creator of one of the best password managers, has unveiled a swathe of new security and Agentic AI capabilities in its XAM platform.

Among the new updates are enhanced governance and compliance capabilities, and one-click app access, alongside new Agentic AI features including a 1Password SDK, service accounts, and the ability to store AI Agent secrets in the 1Password Enterprise password manager.

1Password have also announced a new partnership with Drata to further boost 1Password’s compliance offerings.

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New XAM capabilities

From June 2025, the platform will also offer extended device compliance to allow IT teams additional visibility into the devices employees are using to access web and AI applications, whether they are work-provided or personal devices. A one-click app launcher will also be made available in June, providing employees with a single access point to all the managed and unmanaged applications they need.

In fall 2025, the platform will additionally offer access governance for SaaS applications, allowing IT teams to fully monitor and automate access and discover unauthorized shadow IT. IT admins will be able to access an XAM console that will provide visibility on user lifecycle, surface insights, policies across users, their devices, and the applications they access.

"The way people work has fundamentally changed, and security needs to catch up quickly,” said David Faugno, Co-CEO at 1Password. “The explosion of SaaS has increased access management and governance complexity, and now, agentic AI is compounding that challenge.”

“Organizations need a new approach, one that not only secures managed devices and applications but also the unmanaged tools that employees and AI agents actually use to get work done. That’s exactly what 1Password Extended Access Management is built for. We’re not just solving today’s problems; we’re shaping the future of identity and access management security - one that empowers productivity without compromising protection,” Faugno added.

Agentic AI security from 1Password

From today, 1Password has made an SDK for Agentic AI available to help developers build secure AI workflows through programmatic management of vault items. What’s more, developers and IT admins will be able to create scoped API keys to allow AI agents to access vaults without exposing credentials, and allow AI agents to perform efficiently without exposing businesses to additional risk.

The 1Password enterprise password manager now also offers secure vaults for AI agents, where they can retrieve information needed to access service providers, while also providing audit logs.

“AI agents will rapidly become the hardest-working members of today’s workforce,” said Jeff Shiner, Co-CEO at 1Password. “They operate non-stop at machine speed, scaling workflows in ways we’ve never seen—but they don’t fit neatly into old security models. That’s why we created Agentic AI Security: to help businesses move fast and stay secure, giving developers the tools to innovate confidently while providing security teams the visibility they need.”

1Password partners with Drata

1Password has also announced that it has partnered with Drata to offer enhanced compliance through continuous monitoring, secure access enforcement, and real-time insights across the edge, AI-driven tools, and employee-owned devices.

“Security and compliance are inseparable, especially as SaaS sprawl and AI adoption introduce new layers of complexity and risk,” said David Faugno, Co-CEO of 1Password. “Organizations can’t achieve lasting compliance without securing how people, devices, applications, and AI agents access their critical business data, and you can’t secure access without continuously verifying compliance.”

“This partnership with Drata helps unify these efforts, giving companies the ability to enforce strong security policies across all identities, applications, and devices—both managed and unmanaged—while staying continuously audit-ready. It’s a step toward a more modern, automated, and resilient approach to trust at scale,” Faugno concluded.

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The agency accuses the ridesharing company of charging customers without consent and making it hard to cancel the service.

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• CATL unveils second generation of its "Shenxing" fast-charging battery
• A five-minute charge can add over 320-miles of range
• The lithium-iron phosphate battery cells are cheaper than nickel-rich rivals

China’s EV giants are currently embroiled in a battery charging arms race, as the likes of BYD, Huawei, and Zeekr all recently announced that they had cracked 1MW charging speeds for five-minute battery top-ups.

CATL, which is the world’s largest EV battery manufacturer by a long way, has also joined in the competition, announcing that its next-generation 'Shenxing' LFP (lithium-ion phosphate) battery can add over 320 miles in just five minutes from the appropriate but currently thin-on-the-ground 1MW fast charging outlets.

Boasting that the batteries will feature in more than 67 new EVs due to arrive this year, CATL’s Chief Technology Officer, Gao Huan, said the goal is to make the Shenxing technology "the standard" for electric vehicles.

But alongside the company’s range-topping technology, it also announced a more energy-dense sodium battery, branded as Naxtra. This will deliver a range of over 300 miles, offering a much more affordable and safer option to current lithium and lead-acid-based batteries.

CATL says the technology achieves an energy density of 175Wh per kg, which puts it on par with many of today’s premium LFP battery packs found in the likes of BYD, Tesla, and Volvo products.

Plus, with an abundance of sodium, it reduces the reliance on rare earth materials, making it much cheaper to manufacture, and could therefore be introduced to more affordable, entry-level EVs in the future.

China continues to push EV tech forward

(Image credit: CATL)

Alongside its more affordable, sodium-based batteries and ultra-fast charging packs, the company’s CTO also hinted at a new "dual-power" pack design, which would allow for two different battery chemical make-ups to run in parallel.

Although there was little in the way of real-world examples at the firm’s recent Tech Day in Shanghai, CATL stated that two lithium-ion units with nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) cathodes could potentially offer a capacity of 180kWh - far eclipsing the 100 or so kWh touted by today’s costliest EVs.

This would effectively be able to power a small electric sedan for almost 950 miles before the battery packs run dry, practically doubling the range touted by some of the most advanced electric vehicles on sale today.

Of course, this sort of technology is going to be reserved for the wealthiest of CATL’s automotive clientele and embedded into premium models that the masses can only dream of affording.

But the company’s constant 'leveling up' of battery tech means that even the most basic technology it offers is now becoming more energy dense, safer, and faster to charge.

Could the days of lengthy charging stops and constantly interrupted electric road trips be soon behind us? Let's hope so.

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We've got good news and bad news for fans of Heartstopper. There's not going to be another season of one of the best Netflix shows, but Nick and Charlie will be going out in style in a full-length feature film.

The news was announced on Netflix's Tudum site, which confirms that Heartstopper creator Alice Oseman will be on board to write the new Netflix movie. It'll start filming in the summer.

And that's not all Netflix has to say about the movie. It's going to be emotional...

What happens in the movie of Heartstopper?

The movie will pick up immediately after the Hearstopper season 3 finale, with Nick and Charlie an apparently inseparable couple.

But life has a tendency of getting in the way, and with Nick preparing to leave for university while Charlie finds new independence at school, they have to face the reality of trying to maintain a long-distance relationship. According to Netflix, "doubts take hold, and their relationship faces its biggest challenge yet."

The film will also focus on Nick and Charlie's friends, who are "navigating the ups and downs of love and friendship. confronting the bittersweet challenges of growing up and moving on".

As you'd hope, Kit Connor and Joe Locke are back as the teen lovebirds – although that wasn't guaranteed, because their contracts had expired and the show had made them both in-demand actors. Other cast announcements for what could likely become one of the best Netflix movies will be made soon.

One of the interesting things about this movie is that it draws from volume six of the Heartstopper graphic novels – and that volume isn't out yet. Alice Oseman has suggested that volume six would ideally come out before the finale, but according to Deadline she's still writing it. No pressure, Alice...

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Prime Video has an extensive catalog of rotating movies and TV shows, including those in our curated list of best Prime Video shows. That said, it's difficult to find exactly what titles are leaving Prime Video because it doesn't have a dedicated "expiring filter" like it does for Amazon in the UK. In Amazon US, expiring titles have a label that appears at least 14 days in advance. It's just up to you to find it.

But we're here to help with that step. While combing through forums and catalogs, we've pinpointed these three highly rated movies that are leaving Prime Video soon. (If you're tired of the old and want more of the new, you can look at these three new Prime Video movies in April 2025 instead.)

Saturday Church (2018)

• RT score: 90%
• Directors: Damon Cardasis
• Age Rating: R
• Length: 1 hr 22 min
• Leaving on: April 29

Saturday Church is director Damon Cardasis' first feature film, starring a troubled queer youth that learns to express himself through dance. It's a unique coming-of-age movie that doubles as a musical, perfect for watchers that like a good beat.

Fourteen-year-old Ulysses (Luka Kain) struggles with his role as the new 'man of the house' while exploring his gender identity. After the death of his father, he and his sister Amara find themselves in the care of their conservative aunt Rose while their mother is working.

Ulysses is bullied at school for being shy and effeminate but learns that maybe that isn't so bad when he meets a group of LGBTQ kids that introduce him to voguing at the local church.

Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

• RT score: 86%
• Directors: Sergio Leone
• Age Rating: R
• Length: 3 hr 39 min
• Leaving on: April 29

Once Upon a Time in America is a commitment with its three and a half-hour runtime, but it's worth watching for fans of gritty older films. It's still considered an American classic to this day because of its direction, score, and deeper themes of friendship and betrayal.

Released in 1984, Once Upon a Time in America stars Hollywood icon Robert De Niro as David 'Noodles' Aaronson, a gang member that grew up in the slums of the Lower East Side. The movie shifts between different points in Noodles' life between the early 1910s to the late 1960s, all of which give insight into the truth behind the regrets he faces.

Note: It isn't for the faint of heart and you should definitely check the rating information if you struggle with content warnings.

Past Lives (2023)

• RT score: 95%
• Directors: Celine Song
• Age Rating: PG-13
• Length: 1 hr 45 min
• Leaving on: April 30

Past Lives explores the connections we have with others, even though we may never get to know them quite as much as we'd like to.

Na Young (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Yoo Teo) are childhood friends. They grow up together in South Korea until Na Young moves with her family to Canada and becomes 'Nora Moon'. After years apart, they reconnect online and start talking again but decide to focus on their own lives because it's not feasible to anchor their lives over a long-distance relationship. Nora eventually marries and moves to NYC with her husband.

Nora and Hae Sung intermittently keep in touch over multiple years but slip past each other, never committing to meeting or anything significant. When Hae Sung tells her he's visiting the city for a short trip, the two decide to see each other again, but at what cost?

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• There are hundreds of scam farms across Southeast Asia, the UN is saying
• Local governments are conducting raids, but they're ineffective
• The industry is spreading into Africa and South America

Despite governments and law enforcement agencies in the Southeast Asian region trying their best to contain the threat, the scam industry is thriving, taking advantage of the fact that there are many remote, inaccessible regions, and many impoverished, undereducated people to abuse.

This is according to a new report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). As reported by Cybernews, UNODC said the scam industry is a “multibillion-dollar” one and it’s expanding globally to include South America and Africa.

It originated in Southeast Asia, where there are “hundreds” of large-scale farms, housing tens of thousands of workers. Some of these people were even trafficked and forced to work in these scam farms. These farms are generating “tens of billions of dollars” in annual profits, the UNODC said.

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Spreading like cancer

Governments of Southeast Asian countries, such as China, Thailand, Myanmar, and many others, are persistently trying to disrupt these activities, but they’re apparently not achieving much, since the groups can simply pick up and move elsewhere.

“It spreads like a cancer,” said Benedikt Hofmann, UNODC acting regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific. “Authorities treat it in one area, but the roots never disappear; they simply migrate.”

“The regional cyberfraud industry... has outpaced other transnational crimes, given that it is easily scalable and able to reach millions of potential victims online, with no need to move or traffic illicit goods across borders,” said John Wojcik, a regional analyst with UNODC.

The report mentions crackdowns in “lawless areas” of the Thai-Myanmar border, Cambodia, and elsewhere. The criminals would simply migrate to Laos, Myanmar, and other “most remote, vulnerable, and underprepared parts of Southeast Asia”.

The money stolen through fraud still needs to be laundered, which is why these groups are expanding into Africa and South America, where they’re partnering up with drug cartels. UNODC says operations are being established in Zambia, Angola, and Namibia, but also in Eastern European countries such as Georgia.

Via Cybernews

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• Garmin is expanding its availability of the ECG app
• It is now available in Switzerland and the United Kingdom
• It lets users record their heart rhythm and check for signs of atrial fibrillation

Garmin has today announced that its ECG app is now available to customers in Switzerland and the UK, bringing the total list of supported territories to more than 50.

Garmin's ECG app works with all of the best Garmin watches including the Fenix 8 and beyond, and lets users record their heart rhythm and check for signs of atrial fibrillation.

The app shows you immediate results on your wrist and lets you sync your readings to Garmin Connect, viewing them on the smartphone app at a later date. The latter also supports compiling a history of ECG results you can share with your healthcare provider.

Garmin's ECG is powered by the sensors on the back of its smartwatches, which record electrical signals to measure heart rate rhythm, and the company says it's the first Garmin smartwatch feature to be categorized as a medical device in either country.

Garmin's ECG rollout

(Image credit: Garmin)

Garmin says that it will continue to expand its portfolio of products supporting the ECG app, as well as launch it in more regions in line with necessary regulatory approval.

Garmin's full suite of supported devices includes the D2, Enduro 3, Epix Pro Gen 2, Fenix 7, Fenix 8, Quatix 7 Pro, Tactix 7, Tactix 8, Venu 2 Plus, Venu 3, and the Venu 3S.

Aside from today's new territories, already-supported nations include Australia, most of Europe, the United States, and more.

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• The Nintendo Switch 2 version of Cyberpunk 2077 will offer Nvidia DLSS
• CD Projekt Red confirmed the game uses DLSS in four modes, including handheld and docked, and the performance and quality variations of each
• Cyberpunk 2077 will have a choice between 30FPS quality mode and a 40FPS performance mode

CD Projekt Red has confirmed that the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Cyberpunk 2077 will feature Nvidia DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling).

That's according to Digital Foundry, which was able to confirm with the studio during a hands-on event that the Switch 2 version will offer Nvidia's AI-upscaling technology in both handheld and docked mode.

"We're using a version of DLSS available for Nintendo Switch 2 hardware, powered by Nvidia's Tensor cores," CD Projekt Red told the publication. "The game utilises DLSS in all four modes: in handheld and docked, and the performance and quality variations of each."

When docked, Cyberpunk 2077 will offer a choice between 30FPS quality mode and a 40FPS performance mode, the latter of which would presumably work only on TVs that support 120Hz.

"With consistent performance, both should look smooth, with the 40fps mode sitting between 30fps and 60fps in terms of fluidity," Digital Foundry explained. "Both modes are using 1080p as the output resolution with dynamic resolution scaling in effect in combination with DLSS."

In handheld mode, quality mode will still output a 1080p image with DLSS and dynamic resolution scaling, targeting 30fps, while performance mode will see a drop in resolution to 720p, "with the handheld screen in 120Hz mode and 40fps as the target."

Cyberpunk 2077 is the first game to be confirmed to feature DLSS following the Switch 2 Direct earlier this month.

Nintendo revealed that the Switch 2 would feature Nvidia's DLSS after the livestream, but refrained from sharing which games would utilize it. Right now, it's unclear if any of the company's first-party titles will also offer the tech, or if it's only being reserved for third-party games that first released on PC, like Cyberpunk 2077.

The Nintendo Switch 2 launches on June 5, 2025, and will cost $449.99 / £395.99 or $499.99 / £429.99 for the Mario Kart World bundle, which comes with a digital copy of the game.

Pre-orders are now live in the UK. US pre-orders are set to begin on April 24 after Nintendo delayed its initial April 9 date as it assessed the potential impact of tariffs.

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• Andor season 2 will delve deeper into Mon Mothma and Vel Sartha's family relationship
• Genevieve O'Reilly and Faye Marsay say Luthen Rael will play an "important" role in how it plays out
• Mon and Vel were revealed to be cousins in Andor's first season

Genevieve O'Reilly and Faye Marsay have lifted the lid on the "important" role that Luthen Rael will play in the evolution of their characters' dynamic in Andor season 2.

Speaking to TechRadar ahead of the Disney+ show's return, O'Reilly and Marsay suggested that Mon Mothma and Vel Sartha's relationship will be explored in more detail this season. However, their kinship will be at the mercy of Luthen, aka the nascent Rebel Alliance's shadowy leader.

Indeed, clear though it is that Mon and Vel care dearly for one another, their relationship will always be considered second-best – in Luthen's mind, anyway – in the fight to overthrow the Galactic Empire.

And, with the rebellion's puppet master "holding a lot of the cards" in terms of orchestrating the role of every rebel in the Star Wars TV series, Mon and Vel will find themselves pulled in different directions throughout the final season's 12-episode run.

Luthen Rael will continue to orchestrate matters from the shadows (Image credit: Lucasfilm/Disney Plus)

"From Vel's perspective, the relationship [she shares with Mon] isn't difficult," Marsay told me. "It's the circumstances around it that are tough.

"Vel is on the frontline, but Mon is – while she's still a prominent figure in the rebellion, she's – working in the background. That puts their relationship in an interesting position, because the affection they have for each other is there, but one of them is acting from the shadows while the other is very much a 'boots on the ground' fighter."

Luthen becomes an integral person within this familial structure

Genevieve O'Reilly, Andor season 2 actor

"We have a great conduit in Luthen," O'Reilly added of Luthen's impact on the pair's relationship in Andor's second installment. "He's a really important part of this triangle. You understand his machinations, but you're also quite uptight about how he's keeping these family members apart.

"There's a scene in season 2 that we filmed in Valencia," O'Reilly continues. "It's a party scene where Mon and Luthen cross paths again, and Mon asks him 'How is my cousin? I haven't heard from her'. There's a worry there that something might have happened to Vel but, Luthen being Luthen, he doesn't reveal anything. So, he becomes an integral person within this familial structure and he's holding a lot of the cards that keeps everyone on their toes."

The second and final season of Andor, aka one of the best Disney+ shows, begins airing on April 22 (US) and April 23 (UK and Australia). Before its three-episode premiere arrives, read my spoiler-free review of Andor season 2 to learn how good it is, find out who's who in Andor's second season, or read the section below for more Andor-based coverage.

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