‘Andor’ Showrunner Says Series Is About “Ordinary People”, Talks Collaborating With Lucasfilm Story Group
The upcoming Star Wars: Andor series has been featured on the cover of the latest issue of SFX magazine, which also released a new set of images from the show. As part of the cover story, the magazine also had the chance to sit down with some of the creatives involved, including showrunner Tony Gilroy and main actors Genevieve O’Reilly, Denise Gough, and Kyle Soller.
Check out the new images here, courtesy of r/StarWarsLeaks:
Gilroy, who has been the face of the show’s promotional campaign since the panel at Star Wars Celebration (along with Diego Luna), addressed how they approached writing the show. (Hat tip to r/StarWarsLeaks for putting together this information.) He started by explaining the overall context of what he had to work with on Andor:
“I get this five-year period to deal with, and it’s a pretty kinetic moment in history, with the Empire taking over. But you also have these spores of revolution all over the galaxy. Nobody knows each other, there’s different factions, and it’s all going to coalesce awkwardly and clumsily at Yavin.”
He continued by saying that the show is ultimately about the people that formed the Rebellion, and not about the battles themselves (though there will probably be plenty of them):
“But our show is about ordinary people. They’re behind the scenes, they’re going to build the road to the revolution. We’re really in the kitchen with these people – our people are back there washing dishes, so canon might be happening off stage, but what’s happening for them is something completely different. Every day our aspiration in every department, on every costume, every weapon and every sideburn is always how to make it real. That’s the overriding manifesto for our show – make it real.”
He also broke down briefly the structure of the first season of the show, saying that the first three episodes will be mainly focused on one story, before we start branching out. He said:
“We’re dealing with, I don’t know, 190 speaking parts in the first 12 episodes, and you’re carrying over 25-30 characters that we care about from the first half to the second half. The first three episodes are pretty contained in our show, it’s pretty much about this one place and this one couple of days. And then, when episode four starts, we just start adding characters and the world just gets really, really wide.”
This is something we already speculated after the last trailer was released — from what was depicted in that two-minute spot, it seems like we are going to see Cassian Andor get stripped away from his adoptive home, and we are going to explore that in detail, over the first three episodes. You can read our trailer breakdown here, where we tried to piece together the story of the first three episodes. No spoilers here, as we are simply speculating and not basing it off any leaks.
Gilroy also confirmed that the Andor writing team was in constant communication with Lucasfilm creative executive Pablo Hidalgo:
“Within Star Wars, within Wookiepedia, there’s got to be four or five levels of canon. There’s film canon, cartoon canon, fan-fiction canon and all these different things – and for the larger issues we deal with [Star Wars Lore Advisor – yes, that’s his official job title!] Pablo Hidalgo.”
From what we’ve seen so far, one of the elements that have been highly praised about the show is its production design. Not only was Andor shot on real locations, but they also built actual (gigantic) sets that helped the actors dive into each scene. Even Diego Luna said recently that they didn’t use green screens at all in the show, that it was all practical and the props were real. Gilroy said this was thanks to production designer Luke Hull, who brought a galaxy far, far away to the U.K.:
“We brought in Luke Hull, who’s a wunderkind young production designer. He did Chernobyl and that should tell you where we’re at [with the design]. Everything around you is so real. The switches and dials are all so funky and great, and George Lucas baked that in from the start. We’re taking that funk and baking it into every department, to every part of the storytelling.”
Another great collaborator Gilroy found on the show is Genevieve O’Reilly, who plays Mon Mothma. About the character, the writer/director said:
“Our goal is to have as many varieties as you possibly can, and Mon Mothma has her own rebellion. People will find out a lot more about that as the show goes on, because there’s some really interesting things that we’re going to say about her. It’s not that we’re reversing canon or anything, we’re just going to tell you that, wow, you had no idea what some people were really about – and maybe you don’t understand why she’s doing it all.”
O’Reilly herself also spoke to SFX Magazine, giving a few additional details about her character in Andor:
“When we meet Mon Mothma in Coruscant, it’s a high society world of intrigue and political machinations. She is trying to be a voice for diplomacy and a voice for action, and trying to gather allies against this ever looming autocracy. At the moment, the Emperor has all the numbers, and she is a very lonely voice. In order to change, she has to put her head above the parapet, which is highly dangerous, and I think that’s what allows for the thriller element that runs through this season.”
Denise Gough, who plays supervisor Dedra Meero, the face of the Empire in the show, told the magazine that one of the most challenging aspects of working on Andor for her was the Star Wars dialogue. Apparently, she even called Jodie Whittaker and Sebastian Stan, asking for help. She also added that she was tuned out when she walked on set and saw people in droid costumes:
“I went on set thinking I was really prepared, and then you go into the room, there’s two people dressed as droids, and I couldn’t do it.”
Kyle Soller, who plays another Imperial officer in the show named Syril Karn, weighed in on his character’s obsession with Cassian Andor:
“The fixation Syril has with Cassian is almost possessive. There’s a quality about this character who doesn’t live by the rules, who is mysterious, and who is incredibly adept at surviving, and Syril wants a bit of that. He just doesn’t know why.”
His costume is definitely not one we’ve seen a lot in Star Wars, so when asked who he works for exactly, Soller said:
“It’s kind of like the corporate police on Coruscant. He has his eyes on the end goal, which is becoming part of the kind of Star Wars version of the secret police, the ISB.”
The ISB is the Imperial Security Bureau, the Empire’s version of the CIA. We’ve known that they are involved in the series since a few set photos leaked last year, featuring characters in the background wearing their standard white uniforms. You might remember them from Admiral Yularen in A New Hope, and most notably, Orson Krennic in Rogue One. Ben Mendelsohn, who played Krennic, has not been officially announced as part of the series, though there’s plenty of speculation that he’ll at least be making a cameo. Having one of our main characters work for the same Imperial department that Krennic works for, definitely increases the chances of him showing up.
We will find out for sure in just a few weeks, when Andor premieres on Disney Plus. The series will have a three-episode debut on September 21st and will air a new episode every week until November 23. Stay tuned for more Andor news soon, as the marketing campaign is ramping up quickly.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
