As Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) ascends to a leadership role within the rebellion in Andor season two, he sets his course for that fateful date with destiny in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. But where does that leave the impressive ensemble of other characters introduced in the series—you know, if they make it out of this final season alive?
In a sit down with io9, we asked show creator Tony Gilroy his thoughts on moving on from Andor after making a series of cinematic chapters that set the table for the events of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.
On whether he thinks Lucasfilm might pick up the stories of Andor‘s Rebels or Imperial personalities without him, Gilroy said, “Well, they own it all, they can do as they wish. I mean we’ve made eight movies in five years.” (Describing the work on Andor as “movies” makes sense, because each of season two’s three-episode drops feels like a three-hour movie.)
Gilroy continued, “There’s a lot of ideas, a lot of new planets, a lot of everything in there; it’s theirs for the picking.”
Ultimately his collaboration through Andor was a limited experience that has introduced many new fan-favorite heroes and villains, and it’s mostly thanks to the head of Lucasfilm. “My linkage with with Lucasfilm is primarily with Kathleen [Kennedy]. I primarily deal with her [and] Pablo Hidalgo [who] is the sort of keeper of the [story lore] over there when it comes to keeping things real. He’s the historian and he’s the arbiter of what’s kosher and what’s not. I knew him from Rogue, we spent time on Rogue and that’s my primary point of connection with Lucasfilm.”
“I’ve only spoken to George Lucas once after Rogue on the phone—I’ve never met him,” he said of his only interaction with Star Wars’ creator.
“We kind of were left to be free-range here,” Gilroy said. “We kind of ran wild, we kept testing. We tested the beginning, ‘We want to have him go to a brothel and kill two cops!’ ‘Okay!’ ‘We want to hire the production designer from Chernobyl!’ ‘Okay!’ We showed what we wanted to do, and then we then we set about to do it, and they were just incredibly supportive.”
Andor season two premieres April 22 on Disney+.
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