Diego Luna on How Tony Gilroy Made ‘Andor’ a ‘Star Wars’ Series With Many Genres
Diego Luna has recently spoken more about how Andor will jump around between different tones and genres — one week we might get the action and adventure you’d expect from Star Wars, then the next week it will “start from scratch” and turn into a political spy thriller.
Speaking with TV Line (h/t Screen Rant), here is what Luna had to say:
We have 12 episodes to cover a year so what happens with the series — and again, I blame Tony Gilroy — is just when you understand what [the show] is going to be like, what kind of tone you’re going to be in, what characters are going to be around and what the setting is, the series will take you somewhere else and you will go and start from scratch.
That way the series can transform to be yes, the adventure-and-action piece that you would hope a Star Wars is, but then it will be able to turn into a spy thriller and become very political, and then in a moment become very intimate and character-driven, and then back into the big scope.
These are all things that the cast and showrunner have been saying for months now, but it suggests that Andor will continue to explore different genres and tones like it has done during the first half of the season. Tony Gilroy has created a show that manages to find distinct ways to explore these characters and show us a different part of the Star Wars galaxy.
Andor seems to be following a pattern of three-episode arcs in its first season. The first three episodes followed Cassian on Ferrix, with two episodes of slow build-up followed by an explosive third installment with Cassian fleeing the planet with Luthen. The fourth and fifth episode returned to that slow build as Cassian gets used to his new team ahead of a heist in the sixth episode.
That heist promises just as much tense action as we got in episode three, if not more. However, if you’re expecting Andor to become mostly action-oriented from there, then you might be in for a surprise.
If the show follows the pattern established in the first six episodes (assuming this week’s episode is indeed an action-heavy heist), it’s easy to imagine that we will return to the slow build next week to follow some of the other aspects of the series, like Mon Mothma and the Senate, or Dedra Meero and the internal politics of the ISB. Cassian might spend some time quietly deliberating his path with the growing Rebellion while Luthen works quietly in the shadows figuring out where the rebels’ next win is going to come from.
Because all of these elements require very different approaches, it’s difficult to know precisely what to expect from one week to the next, aside from the current structure of three-episode arcs with the third being heavier on high-octane stuff. It will be interesting to see where Andor will take us next after Cassian’s big heist, but you can bet it will be compelling either way.
Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.
