We’re just days away from Obi-Wan Kenobi premiering on Disney+, but some Star Wars fans may already be looking further ahead into the franchise’s future. While we’re still a ways off from more Star Wars movies coming out, there’ll be plenty more TV content to enjoy set in a galaxy far, far away, including Andor, which reunites us with Diego Luna’s Rogue One character. And unlike Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Book of Boba Fett, which are one-and-done affairs (for now), Andor is already has a second season in development, and Tony Gilroy, the show’s creator, explained why another batch of episodes was necessary
Taking place five years before the events of Rogue One, Andor Season 1 will consist of 12 episodes, and there’ll be just as many in Season 2. After telling Vanity Fair that Alan Tudyk’s K-2SO will not be in Andor, or at least “not yet, anyway,” Tony Gilroy, who co-wrote Rogue One (with his additions including the Darth Vader hallway scene, which was the last thing shot), said the following about how the second Andor season will distinguish itself from the first one:
It is a second season, but it’s really, for me, the second half of the novel. This first season is about him becoming a revolutionary, and the second 12 episodes take him into Rogue One.
When we met Cassian Andor in Rogue One, he was already an operative for the Rebellion and was willing to do whatever it took to help topple the Empire, including murdering an informant so that important information wouldn’t make it into the Imperials’ hands. But when we meet the character in his younger years at the start of Andor, “he doesn’t see any further than himself” and “couldn’t give a shit” about the Rebellion or even right and wrong at first, as Tony Gilroy put it. He added:
He’s a thief. He’s a ducker and a diver. He has a lot of anger about his childhood, and about the Empire, but he has no place to put it. He just doesn’t believe in anything at this point. But Cassian is also a natural leader. He’s seductive. Seductive in a way where he’s manipulating people. He compromises, he changes his mind. He’s really a perfect kind of spy, warrior, killer. How do you get to that place—and then sacrifice yourself? [Andor] is taking someone who’s really anti-revolution and turning them into the most passionate person who’s going to give themselves to save the galaxy.
So as Tony Gilroy broke it down, Andor Season 1 will follow Cassian Andor evolving from someone who’s chiefly interested in looking after himself to someone who’s willing to put their life on their line for the greater good. Then when Andor Season 2 rolls around, that’s when we’ll see him embark down the path that ultimately take him down the path to meeting Felicity Jones’ Jyn Erso. While we know that both Cassian and Jyn will die on Scarif after transmitting the schematics to the first Death Star to their Rebel allies, at least the Andor series will flesh out the former character in a major way.
Along with Diego Luna reprising Cassian Andor, this live-action Star Wars show will also feature the return of Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mother and Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera, and the lineup of actors cast in undisclosed roles include Stellan Skarsgård, Adria Arjona, Fiona Shaw, Denise Gough and Kyle Soller. Tony Gilroy mentioned that there are 211 speaking parts in Andor, and of the 75 people “who really matter,” there are “at least a dozen seriously important characters” who will be back for Season 2. Gilroy also said that in addition to pleasing hardcore Star Wars fans, this series is also looking to expand its audience to people who aren’t deeply entrenched in what happens within this fictional universe.
It hasn’t been announced yet when Andor will premiere for Disney+ subscribers, but we’ll pass that along one that’s reveled, along with any other major news concerning upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows.
