Tony Gilroy Explains Why Andor Didn’t Use the Volume

SWNN Probe · Sep 23, 2022

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy discussed why they ultimately opted not to use the Volume technology for the show, and gave some insight into Luthen Rael, the mysterious character played by Stellan Skarsgård that we were introduced to in the second episode. In this article, we've condensed the most interesting parts of the interview, but you may head over to their site if you are interested in reading the entire piece.

When asked if shooting on location was a prerequisite for him when he was brought on board, Gilroy said that it was a decision that they took when they started to plan out the series and hired a production designer:

'When I came on, Sanne Wohlenberg was the producer of record. She came with the existing pieces of the show. So Sanne was there, but I didn’t know her. She had just done Chernobyl, and it was sort of a shotgun marriage. So here we were together, and I had no idea that she was just going to be this rockstar producer.

And so the first decision you have to make is who’s going to be your production designer. Even in writing, my first call is to the production designer, because everything we do has to be designed. So we put a marker down. It was kind of a test for Disney: 'How serious are you?' We didn’t want to go with any of the traditional Star Wars people. We wanted [production designer] Luke Hull, who was like 12 years old and had just done Chernobyl. He’s just a fricking genius, but non-Star Wars in every way. So we brought him over. As I was doing the [series] bible, I wrote the first three episodes as a sort of a test.

In a perfect world, we’d be able to shoot location and shoot old school, and then we’d use the Volume when we want to use it. There are times when the Volume would be really good for us, but the technology doesn’t exist to do both. You have to make a choice at this point because of the workflow on the Volume. All your post-production has to be done beforehand. You have to shoot all of your plates. Everything has to be done. When you go in the Volume, everything’s done. You’re just adding the actors.

Our system is completely different. We shoot everything with the actors, and we build out from there if we need to build out. And those two systems, maybe there’s somebody who’s doing it, but economically, you can’t do [both]. So, automatically, we were just like, 'We have to be a build show.' It wasn’t a controversy, really. I saw it get turned into a controversy the other day, but it’s not like that at all. There are times where we’d love to use it. It does some great things.'
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Wide shot from the Andor trailer, filmed on location in Scotland.

The writer for The Hollywood Reporter describes Skarsgård's Luthen Rael as the noble Gus Fring of Coruscant, a reference to the popular character from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul played by Giancarlo Esposito. This is something that we might get to see for ourselves when the fourth episode of Andor comes out. When he asked Gilroy about Luthen's inception, Gilroy explained why this character excites him so much:

'That man is really tricky. In the beginning, you’re like, 'Oh God, secret identity. How are we going to do it? It’s going to be cheesy. What do they do?' Stellan’s character has two personas. He owns a gallery in Coruscant, and he’s an aesthete. He’s a courtier in a way, and then he’s natural Luthen out in the world.

One day, when we were developing the whole thing, Stellan goes, 'Ah, the wigs … It’s really just the hands.' And I go, 'What do you mean?' And he goes, 'Well, natural Luthen is this, and Luthen of Coruscant is this. That’s all it is.' (Gilroy performed both mannerisms.) So it was one of those things that I was really worried about and nervous about. It’s always the case on every show, but the things you don’t worry about are the ones that bite you in the ass. So I was really, really worried about this, but all those issues took care of themselves along the way. That, very elegantly, worked out. Yeah, I love Luthen of Coruscant.'
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Stellan Skarsgård's Luthen Rael meets Genevieve O'Reilly's Mon Mothma in Andor.

One of the most popular beliefs when it comes to creating prequels to known stories is that the newly introduced characters will have to perish before the end of the story. Most were convinced that the entire ensemble from Rogue One would have to die so that we as viewers wouldn't be asking why those characters weren't in A New Hope. Dave Filoni, however, flipped the script in Star Wars: Rebels when he only killed one of the main characters, and he did it for story reasons and not for the sake of satisfying the audience's questions. Gilroy was asked which way his characters will go in the second season, and he responded that there will be plenty of both:

'We literally have around 200 speaking parts in the first 12 episodes. When I figured out season two, I had to make about 30 phone calls to the actors that I knew were going to go forward. I had to call them up and say, 'Hey, this is what I’m thinking. This is when you live. This is when you die. This is how many episodes you’re in.' I mean, the body count is high all the way through, but people live. It’s a revolution. It’s a very intense period of time. People are doing very dangerous things. Some people live and some people don’t. How do we know who lives or dies at the end from the previous Star Wars? You wouldn’t know. I mean, there’s people buried in Yavin. Who knows who’s there.'
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The second season of Andor is starting to shoot in November and will be filming until August 2023. It will probably arrive on Disney Plus in two years' time.

New episodes of the first season are coming out every Wednesday. If you haven't already, make sure to check out our review of the first three episodes of Andor, both in written form here and the live discussion from The Resistance Broadcast here. Stay tuned for our review of the fourth episode next Wednesday!

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Tony Gilroy Explains Why Andor Didn’t Use the Volume

SWNN Probe Seeker

Tony Gilroy Calls Andor The Most 'Important' Thing He Has Ever Done

Tony Gilroy Recognized by WGA East for His Decades-Long Career, Stellan Skarsgard Praises ‘Andor’ Season 2

Tony Gilroy Takes New York Picket Line by Storm With Fiery Speech Remarking the Importance of Victory for Writers

Andor Showrunner Tony Gilroy Describes the Collaborative Effort Required to Create the Critically Acclaimed Season Finale

Tony Gilroy and Diego Luna Once Again Lament Lack of Transparency in Streaming Data Amid Dual Strike While Celebrating Andors Emmy Nominations

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