Star Wars: Andor Will Change How Fans See Rogue One, Teases Showrunner Tony Gilroy

According to showrunner Tony Gilroy, the upcoming Andor series will change how we perceive Diego Luna's character as well as Rogue One.



Ahead of the busiest Star Wars week since December 2019, Vanity Fair has even more Star Wars coverage to share, and now it's time to expand on Star Wars: Andor and how it will explore the character's past while also informing what comes afterwards. If you've missed all the previous articles from last week in the magazine's huge pre-Kenobi push, you can find our rundowns of each one here.



Among last week's teases, we read Diego Luna describing Andor as the story of a refugee, someone whose planet was ravaged by war. We had already heard rumors regarding this plot point, plus we know for a fact the series will cover Cassian Andor's journey since he was a teenager. In this new piece, Luna expands on what the show means to him:

For Gilroy, the first season of Andor is all about starting out in a really bad place and eventually becoming someone who wants to make a difference. But more importantly, the series will deal with the darker side of the character that was scratched in Rogue One for a while:

Gilroy also had time to address the rumors and all the confusion surrounding Alan Tudyk's Rogue One character, K-2SO. Right now, it appears the droid will be introduced at some point during the second season:

Tons of confusion have surrounded the show's intended length too. While we always knew the first volume of Andor would run for 12 episodes, many different numbers have been thrown around by several sources when it comes to the amount of planned seasons. Recently, DP Adriano Goldman said they were working on five seasons before the massive project was cut down to (maybe) three installments. Now, we have Gilroy describing the second season as the second half of a novel during an official interview, so it seems like not even the DP had the complete picture.



Later in the interview, Gilroy offers an extensive description of who Cassian is throughout the series and what that means for the man we meet in Rogue One. It seems like he's just a rebel without a cause at the beginning of the show:

However, Cassian Andor is also 'a natural leader' at this point in his life:

For those keeping track of rumors, these descriptions of Cassian gel quite well with what we know about Saw Gerrera and his Partisans, who played a key role in destabilizing the Empire using methods deemed as too extreme by the Rebel Alliance. It may not happen near the beginning, but we're willing to bet Gerrera and his warriors are a big part of the show and help shape Andor into the guy-who-gets-dirty that Rogue One introduced.





Light spoilers ahead for the first season of Andor.





When it comes to Genevieve O'Reilly's Mon Mothma, Tony Gilroy explains she plays a big role in the show, but Andor and her won't meet face-to-face until the second season. Here's what he had to say:

Moreover, Gilroy was willing to spill the beans on how the series starts:

It sounds like we're getting a very dirty, gray story for a good portion of season 1, with the galaxy only expanding for Cassian once he inadvertently becomes part of something bigger than his usual activities. It all seems very Dickensian too, as the showrunner mentioned. Some of those elements were briefly explored at the beginning of Solo: A Star Wars Story as well, so it'll be interesting to see how Lucasfilm retreads familiar ground with another young rebel fighting to survive on an impoverished planet.







Near the end of the interview, Gilroy capped things off with an ominous tease of twists to come:

And finally, he predicts fans will be talking a lot about Mon Mothma in the show:

There's quite a lot to unpack in this massive interview, so we suggest you head over to Vanity Fair's website and read through the entire piece, since it's full of comments that will make you more excited for Andor than you were yesterday.



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