Showrunner Tony Gilroy Talks About How He Made 'Andor' Feel Authentic

Star Wars

Jun 27

Tony Gilroy recently participated in a roundtable for The Hollywood Reporter, where he revealed his impact on Andor’s development. Gilroy joined the franchise when he was brought on board by Disney to finish Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. He admits that his knowledge of Star Wars lore is limited and that although he greatly respects the fanbase, his aim was to produce something entirely new. It’s proof that you don’t have to be a mega fan to make good Star Wars content.

Andor also uses old-school build sets rather than relying on programs such as Volume to fill in backgrounds. This makes life easier for the actors, as they can interact with their surroundings rather than having to imagine them. It could explain the high-quality performances in season one. It also gives us the retro finish of the original movies. This would not have been possible without the big budget from Disney, which was reportedly 250 million dollars for just season one.

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Kathleen Kennedy’s original concept for Andor was a ’Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in Space’ style series. Gilroy saw the script and found it limiting, so he pitched a series of ideas and improvements. His Andor manifesto went into the Disney filing cabinets for over a year until one day; he got a phone call saying they wanted to make his version, and the rest, as they say, is history. Considering how close this concept is to The Mandalorian (swap out Grogu for a droid), it’s lucky that Gilroy was on standby to give Andor a USP.

Tony Gilroy has currently stepped back from his duties on season two of Andor to support the Writers Guild of America Strike. Assuming that this does not affect the filming schedule, it will be released on Disney+ in August 2024.

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