‘Andor’ Star Diego Luna on How Being a Latino Helped Him Find His Character Journey
With Andor now streaming on Disney Plus, lead actor Diego Luna stopped by “This Week in Star Wars!” to talk about the series and why Cassian’s journey is so relevant right now. Luna has been one of the biggest champions of the show since the beginning, and has been, along with Tony Gilroy, at the forefront of the entire marketing campaign for the show. The following is a transcript of the highlights of what Luna said that was published on StarWars.com.
When Gilroy took over the show, he laid out a structure that would see through Cassian’s evolution from a lone ranger to someone willing to sacrifice his life for the Rebellion. Said Luna:
“I’ve been involved as an executive producer, so I’ve been reading the material from the beginning. And it’s been very important for me to understand the journey and what needs to happen this first year. It’s crucial. It’s the year where [Cassian’s] awakening begins.”
Luna has been very outspoken over the years about how important it was to him that Lucasfilm allowed him to keep his Mexican accent, as that is very much a part of his identity. The actor also took the opportunity here to discuss why having a Latino leading a Star Wars series is so meaningful to him:
“This character represents a lot. It’s important that we see ourselves on the screen, that we feel represented, that the stories we tell reflect the world that’s out there. This role has been one of the most special journeys as an actor. It represents a lot in my life because it came at the right time… It helped me reconnect with my childhood, which is something very special. It’s really nice to be back.”
According to Luna, Andor will tell the story of a migrant:
“He’s been migrating. He’s a refugee, you know, he can’t go back to where he belongs. This story is going to tell us what he left behind because that is really important in his journey.”
Going back to the theme of the relationship between the U.S. and Latin America, Diego Luna added the following about how that inspired the show and Cassian’s journey:
“I think about the relation between Latin America and the [United] States and that huge border that separates Mexico from the States. That energy is going to be represented in Cassian’s journey. The strength of community — that’s what this story is about! It’s about people that, by themselves, they can’t do anything. They don’t have Jedi powers. They’re just regular people. [But by pulling together,] they find their strength, and that to me is a beautiful thing to say today when communities need to step up. We seem to be so alienated from each other that we have to go back to find out… What’s going to save you, you know? I think that message is beautiful to send and this series is sending it. It has a connection with the world out there.”
New episodes of Andor debut on Disney Plus every Wednesday. You can check out our written review of the fourth episode here, and watch The Resistance Broadcast’s live discussion here.
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.
