Andoris the critically acclaimed series on Disney+ fromRogue One: A Star Wars Storywriter,Tony Gilroy. The prequel series takes us into the life of Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) prior to being the rebel spy fans met inRogue One,and Gilroy proved that stories like Cassian’s can and should exist within the world ofStar Wars. Season 1 earned the series praise, and Season 2 has resulted in the show’s impressive Emmy nominations. But for Gilroy,he says that it might be the only time he makes something likeAndor.
Duringa recent interview, Gilroy was asked if he would ever do this kind of thing again, referring to the structure and magnitude ofAndor. “I could see doing a limited series or something, but I can’t see doing anything like this again. For five and a half years, every single day of my life, I had a maximally imaginative involvement that was never complete — writing, designing, music, casting, all of it,” Gilroy said. “Every demand on your imagination that could ever be asked was screaming for your attention. That’s a pretty heady place to live. I grew to love it. But I can’t imagine that I would ever be that fully engaged again.”
Andorwas released 6 years afterRogue One’s release in theaters, andRogue Onewas one of the first projects that Lucasfilm did as a standalone project within the largerStar Warsuniverse. Starring Luna andFelicity Jones,the film showed the darker side of the rebellion, which allowedAndortoexplore those themes on a deeper levelthroughout the show’s two-season run.
Tony Gilroy MadeAndorFor His Love of History
BeforeAndor, Gilroy had worked on television with shows likeHouse of Cards,but the scale of aStar Warsproject is different from an original series. Earlier in the interview, Gilroy also talked about how the show was less about working withStar Warsand more about sharinghis love of history through it, especially in the comparison between historical politics, our current landscape, and the themes present withinStar Wars.
“I love history and I’ve been consumed with it my whole life, not in any kind of organized way, just out of curiosity. I’d accumulated all this lumber down in the basement that I didn’t ever think I was going to get a chance to use, but then this show came along. When I started on the show, the parallels between what was happening in the world and what was happening in the galaxy and the Empire — those were already obvious,” he said. “But over the six years we’ve been doing the show, that little monster got on its feet and learned how to run.When Senator Padilla was pulled out of the ICE meeting, like in the episode about the Ghorman senator being pulled out, there was a big text chain in our group like, ‘Oh my God. It looked like the show.’ It’s very sad for us how much it rhymes.”
You can see Gilroy’s work in Season 2 ofAndor.
