The first season of Star Wars: Andor has yet to air, but showrunner Tony Gilroy is drawing back the curtain about where the series begins and what legacy characters may have some unexpected moments for long-time fans of the franchise.
A warning before I go on: below are very mild spoilers for the beginning of Andor. If you want to go into the show without knowing anything about the story or the characters, stop reading now!
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Gilroy shared some details about Andor, including that Alan Tudyk as K-2SO will sadly not be in season one (though there’s a good chance we’ll see him in season two).
The two seasons, for Gilroy, are actually two parts of a whole: “This first season is about [Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor] becoming a revolutionary, and the second 12 episodes take him into Rogue One,” he explained.
And where does the show start with Cassian’s path toward becoming a rebel spymaster? “His adopted home will become the base of our whole first season, and we watch that place become radicalized,” he said. “Then we see another planet that’s completely taken apart in a colonial kind of way. The Empire is expanding rapidly. They’re wiping out anybody who’s in their way.”
And then there’s Mon Mothma, a Star Wars character that may be unfamiliar to some. The character was first introduced in Return of the Jedi as a leader of the Rebellion. Caroline Blakiston played her then, but Genevieve O’Reilly played the character in the prequels and in Rogue One: O’Reilly is back for Andor, and Mon Mothma will be more than a bit part.
“It is a huge, orchestral, Dickensian ensemble cast, with Diego at the middle of it, and Genevieve at the middle of another part of it,” Gilroy explained. “They intersect. I’m not going to get into how they intersect. They do have intersection—but they do not meet. They will not meet until the second half.”
Gilroy also teased that we might not have the right picture about certain legacy characters like Mon Mothma.
“There are certain people, characters, that are legacy characters, that the audience, the passionate audience, really feels that they have an understanding of and know,” Gilroy said. “In some cases, they’re right. And in some cases, what we’re saying is, ‘What you know, what you’ve been told, what’s on Wookieepedia, what you’ve been telling each other…is really all wrong.’”
You can check out the Vanity Fair article in its entirety here. And we’ll find out what characters we’ve got all wrong when the first season of Andor premieres on Disney+ in late summer 2022. No news yet on when season two will hit the streaming platform.
If they’re doing a series about the early days of the Rebel Alliance, I would much rather see it center on Princess Leia than Cassian Andor. And I would want Millie Bobby Brown to play Leia.
I really want to see some live action Rebels characters included in this show. They name dropped Hera in Rogue One already, I would love for her to be included here. Same with Kanan.
It’s Star Wars, so I’m going to watch it. But this is the only announced Star Wars project that I’ve had zero interest in. But, this new little tidbit does at least sound like it could be interesting. It’s honestly kind of nice at this point having no real expectations for a show.
@2 Jo – I agree wholeheartedly! And I can’t wait for Ahsoka for that exact reason.
Also, given where I mostly reside in the sci-fi multiverse, it’s weird for me to see a show that’s titled Andor and isn’t about blue people with antennae and white hair.
@5 Yes – and then when my head switches to the fantasy multiverse I want it to be a show about Aes Sedai and dynastic politics.
@6 – lol, that’s my thought when I hear the word ‘Andor’!
Anyway, this is actually the show (aside from Kenobi) that I am most looking forward to, in part because I loved Rogue One and I enjoy this particular aspect of the timeline. And while I DO think it would be really cool to see Leia’s childhood (probably more interesting than whatever Obi-Wan is watching on Tatooine, haha) I also understand wanting to veer off from the main characters – and I DO like the fact that we’re getting a glimpse into the non-main characters.
That said, I would definitely be jazzed to see some hints of stuff like Bail, Fulcrum (ahem), Hera, and Leia as she starts to get involved in this stuff.
I too think that this series has potential, provided that they don’t simplify and pull their punches too much. Certainly, as far as I am concerned, Mon Mothma could be a thousand times more interesting character than Boba Fett! Here is to hoping that they got over the PT-induced fear of including “politics” in SW, because such a show pretty much requires it. And politics in PT were only bad because of nonsensical execution.