Creating a Revolution: Inside Andor Season 2 with Tony Gilroy
Showrunner and creator Tony Gilroy shares his thoughts on season two.
Tony Gilroy is the first to admit that he doesn't know everything about Star Wars
“I've said this before, but my knowledge of Star Wars is incredibly deep for a five-year period, and then scant for everything else,” says Gilroy. "Such restrictions are really helpful, though - I think the show is good because we knew where we would end up."
And now, with its second and final season, the series “Andor. Star wars. Storieshas officially reached this point by jumping directly into the events of the 2016 film Rogue One. Star wars. Stories, a film co-written by Gilroy.
StarWars.com sat down with Andor's mastermind and multi-talented showrunner to break down each of these arcs and learn a little more about the adventures of Cassian, his Ferrixian friends, and the many allies and enemies they met along the way.
First arc:
Start your engines
The first arc of the second season of Andor begins with a bang. Or rather, it begins with a series of several crashes, explosions, a top-secret TIE prototype... and a little flirting to boot.
We are transported to the research center of Sienar, the oft-mentioned company responsible for creating many of the Empire's technological horrors, including TIE Fighter . What follows is a rather startling "cold open" of the season, as the measured Cassian Andor infiltrates the testing facility to steal their powerful prototype TIE Avenger ship.
“I wanted to immediately show what kind of business he is currently engaged in. I wanted to show how his life has changed and what he does. Now he's different and he's a leader,” Tony Gilroy tells StarWars.com.There is intentionally no music at the top of the stage until Cassian sees off Niya, Sienar's nervous but brave technician. But what follows is loud, bombastic, and exciting storytelling—the type of Star Wars storytelling that has become synonymous with Andor.
Grain, grain, go
Another new planet is the agricultural refuge Mina-Rau, where the heroes who escaped from Ferrix now live in the finale of the first season. Gilroy explains: “I wanted them to go where I would want to be, somewhere really peaceful and friendly. I wanted them to be somewhere quite utopian where Bix could be and still suffer. And I just wanted to add some bright sunshine to the show.”
Surrounded by large fields of wheat, as well as the bright skies the showrunner craved, Mina Rau is positioned as the breadbasket of the galaxy. “I wondered where all the food for Coruscant comes from,” says Gilroy. “I wanted it to be a successful community because a lot of the show is about a community and then its destruction. This is one of the greatest evils of tyranny and colonialism: they destroy communities."
Because of this, the peaceful planet unfortunately becomes the next place in a series of tragedies for the aforementioned Bix, as well as Brasso, Wilmon and B2EMO. That makes sense, too, Gilroy said. “Our Ferrix heroes became a newfound family after being kicked out of the community they truly cared about. Then they found a new place, sunny and beautiful, and it was taken away from them again.”
Brasso's tragic end hits this point even harder. The death of Brasso, a friend, confidant and true leader, is just another sign of sacrifice.“Every time someone dies, every time someone is taken from them, it becomes even more important. It hurts so much and it forces them to move forward,” Gilroy says. "They fight for Maarv, now they fight for Brasso, they fight for Ferrix to the end." Not that that makes it any less painful.
Stone? Paper? Scissors?
Another major subplot of this arc revolved around the bickering survivors of the Maya Pei Brigade, a small part of the fledgling revolution. Wracked with confusion and mistrust, a group of rebels—"led" by Bardi and Gerdis, the latter played by Gilroy's son, Sam—cause serious problems for a disoriented Cassian. Their stories and characters were directly inspired by a real moment in the life of the Gilroy family.
“I started writing the first episode with this big speech with Nia. She was noble, ideal, wonderful, stylish and inspiring. Then I went to dinner with my family and I found myself at the end of a long table with my son and Benjamin Norris, who is Johnny's son-in-law." (The Johnny in question is John Gilroy, Tony's younger brother and producer of Andor.)
The history of Star Wars could have been made at this table. Gilroy continues: “It was a big, noisy dinner, and they were both such idiots the whole meal. I immediately realized that I needed the revolution to also be stupid.It couldn’t just be beautiful.”
Gilroy took this inspiration over dinner and returned to begin writing "these Huckle and Jekyll characters in the woods" who could later act as foils for Cassian. And, of course, he cast two inspirations for the roles: Sam Gilroy and Benjamin Norris (star of Never Have Iand Abbott High School). It was a perfect match.“Oh God, they're such idiots, but they play them so well,” Gilroy laughs. “I was so nervous because when you choose your family, it's nerve-wracking. But they turned out to be pretty good together.”
The lush place for "idiots" was also a pretty stellar moment of coincidence. “I was talking to [knowledge consultant]Pablo Hidalgo, trying to figure out what planet this might be happening on, and it turned out that Yavin 4 had not yet been built at that time,” says Gilroy. “We decided that this would be as good a place as Luten should know about and use as a hideout for the rebels. This also ties into the idea we talked about earlier: Cassian is at the birthplace of all these huge events. This is his destiny."
Welcome to Chandrila
Chandrila has been frequently mentioned in printed materials, noted as the homeworld of Mon Mothma as early as 1987 in West End Games' role-playing game books. But she's never acted before, having only recently appeared in the maxi-series "Battle forJakku" by Marvel Comics, as well as the short "I Am Your Mother" in Star WarsVisions. The planet served as an ideal and rather serene place for many of Andor's disparate characters to appear together, including some you may not have known knew each other.“When I realized that Luten might be working for Davo Skuldun it gave me a lot of extra ideas of, 'Wow, Skuldun is a collector.'"
Inspired by real-life celebrations in Gilroy's own life while writing these episodes, Chandrila's culture truly shines through the elaborate and ornate three-day marriage ceremony between Mothma's daughter and Skaldun's son. Gilroy also notes, “Who doesn’t want a wedding? It's jazzy, it's big, it's lively, and it plays really well as a counterpoint to the other more sterile stuff we get in the arc."
Perhaps the biggest shocker, however, was the purported fate of Tay Kolma, Mon Mothma's childhood friend and her financial savior in adulthood. “I liked the idea that I could take Colma and turn him into Fredo Corleone,” Gilroy muses, referring to the tragically doomed brother in Francis Ford Coppola’sThe Godfathersaga. "And I won't let [Mohn] off the hook - she's going to kill one of her best friends," he says. “She lets him go and then turns to dance. There's blood on her hands, but that's part of loving her - if she doesn't, maybe the Empire will win.
“She dances so as not to scream.”
Second arch:
For me it's all French
For Gilroy, one of the most important tasks of the season was to make Ghorman feel real. A planet that had existed in the galaxy since 1990, Gorman was first mentioned in West End Games' RPG reference book, which raised further questions for Gilroy. “We don’t know what Gorman is. Why is the massacre happening?” Gilroy explains."There's also a lot of dissonance in canon because Legends has the 'Tarkin incident' 15 years ago."
In order to have a reason to mine their precious mineral kalkit, the Empire begins a targeted war against the mountains, but not in the way the public expected. “We realized that the Empire was going to destroy them through propaganda and provocations. The mountains don't touch anyone or do anything, but their pride in their community, their isolation - their Gormanism - is what will destroy them, says Gilroy.
Revenge is a pie best served cold
“I wanted her to get better,” says Gilroy of Bix Caleen.
Bix, who has already suffered great losses throughout most of the show, finds herself in the secret home of the Axis network trying to cling to any semblance of her previous life. “Mina-Rau happened a year earlier,” he continues. “It seemed right to me that she actually ended up in a place that was causing problems for [the Rebellion], creating problems for Luten.”
Not only is Bix's injury a stressor, but the very deep relationship that has blossomed between her and Cassian seems even more taxing for Luten. According to Gilroy, “Of course there is a human resources aspect. He's not a fan of interoffice marriages, obviously, but it's difficult because Cassian is at the tip of Luten's spear."
But where did their relationship come from? “I thought they were made for each other,” Gilroy says. “They were boyfriend and girlfriend when they were nine years old. They look together. They had been in love with each other since childhood, in a sense, and they sort of circled each other.But now they are very close, and the inevitability of their relationship has become obvious."
The relationship between Bix and Cassian is further developed and shown, especially in Arcs Two and Three, giving the filmmakers the opportunity to showcase the incredible skills of their actors. “Adria and Diego were a revelation for me in the first season, in terms of chemistry. You want a real love story, and you want to see what happens to real love under the pressure of revolution."
The final, explosive moment of revenge against Dr. Gorst at the end of "What a Holiday Evening" could have been a little sweeter, Gilroy recalls in an aside. “I also wanted her to take a bite of this cupcake before she left, but they didn’t want to do that. I was in the minority.”
Gas only, no brakes
For Gilroy, one of the greatest remaining secrets of Rogue One was also revealed in the second arc. “What did SawGerrera suck inRogue One? What was that thing? Viewers now know that it was Rhydonium, a volatile, flammable substance needed for the Rebellion. It's an interesting concept that physically ties Seo to his fanatical cause. And it comes from a rather unlikely place: the late acclaimed director, producer and actor Sydney Pollack.
“Sydney flew jets all over the city, and if you worked with him, the first thing he wanted was jet fuel.Instead of money, he wanted jet fuel,” says Gilroy, who worked with Pollack onMichael Clayton.He continues: “So the idea that Luten could supply C with fuel on demand makes it great for Luten, great for Jigsaw, and great for the Rebellion.”
Jet fuel is great for jet aircraft, but definitely not suitable for human consumption. It wasn't Gilroy's choice initially. “The idea that he was sucking up this toxic thing all this time and then trying to legitimize it was great. It was [writer] Beau Willimon's idea that "Rhydo is a revolution," that all it takes is a spark and that's it."
This idea comes to a head in a powerful scene between Seo and young Wilmon Park played by Muhannad Bhayer, who goes toe-to-toe with the Academy Award-winning actor. “Moe was such a surprise in the first season,” Gilroy says. "He's up-and-coming, he's young, and he turns out to be a really good actor."
Wil is given even more to do in the second season of Andor, and this was done very purposefully by Gilroy and team. “He goes from a child, a son, a bomb thrower, to his first love. He becomes a man, and then a warrior, and then a new adopted son for Luten.
“I needed someone who believes in Luten, since Cassian stops believing in him. We will see another revolutionary being forged before our eyes.”
Third arch:
Gorman's Last Stand
There is a sense of inevitability with the final, powerful moments on Gorman. “We always knew how it would end,” Gilroy says. “There were two iconic moments in the calendar: the Gorman massacre and Mon Mothma's speech and departure from the Senate.These were absolutes, this is what we had to deal with.”
The first of these absolutes also required a deft hand and a fairly balanced sense of adult content. "There's a level of violence that we can't get to, but we want to make it as destructive as possible," Gilroy says. Even more challenging, however, was the editing required for the entire sequence, he recalls. “The hardest part was knowing where we were all the time because we had to pay attention to a lot of people. I want you to keep the reality of the situation while being dizzy with everything that is happening.”
The episode itself crystallized when they focused on the fate of a long-running character. “We spent a lot of time massaging the cut so it wasn't too long and didn't go too fast. But we really realized that this was Cyril's episode more than anything else. No matter what we do with all this Gorman stuff, at the end of the day, it's about this guy while he's gone. It really is payday in my mind.”
The wait is over
As the series heads towards Rogue One, familiar faces are starting to appear in season two, with Alan Tudyk and Ben Mendelsohn the obvious additions to the cast. "K-2SO and Krennic are not only iconic characters, they're also great to work with," says Gilroy.
It was worth the wait to see these fan favorites again, and for good reason. As Gilroy explains, “I had to wait for K2. It's just not suitable for storytelling - it's very difficult to take around and do anything with. It has immediate limiting factors when you do that and it had to be really good when it finally arrived.”The fearsome droid KX turns into a familiar face at the end of the third arc, but it's in the fourth arc that the droid can really shine.
“People have had to be very patient,” Gilroy admits. “Alan had to be very patient. But fromRogue OneI learned how strong and big K2 is. I also know how hard it is to tell stories when he's in it, whether you're telling a love story or just trying to keep a secret."
That's not the case with Mendelsohn's masterclass in acting, Gilroy points out. “With Ben, the trick is to just add water. You know, just make him sit down, put a white cape on him and get out of the way."
Figure of speech
Among other things, Andor is known for its intense character studies, explosive action, and phenomenal writing. Mon Mothma's departure from the Senate required all three elements to balance each other. "Mohn's departure from the Senate is an important, turning point, and I wanted to make sure we had the full speech," Gilroy says. “She was always going to give this speech, man, and she has to give it her all. She must give it her all.”
And if she was going to give it her all, the audience had to hear it—or at least Cassian had to hear it. “Then we had to figure out a way to place cameras throughout the Senate and during the broadcast,” Gilroy recalls."We wanted Cassian to hear the entire speech for two reasons: you want him to hear how powerful it is, and you also want him to go back to Yavin 4 and tell General Draven that he doesn't need to hear [her second speech in Star Wars] because “No, I already heard her say it.”
Arch Four:
Luten and Clay
The tenth episode of the season stands out from the rest, if only because of the absence of the main character. However, it was full of moments that were incredibly important to both Gilroy and the series as a whole. "You talk about iconic scenes and you sketch them out, like, 'Oh God, I need this.' For example, you have to have the ending scene between Dedra and Luten, so we just started sketching it out in the gallery. Why would she go there? What will she do?
After this deadly confrontation, the episode transitions to flashbacks, peppered with sketches of the history of Luten and Clea, which has changed over the years. “Even before the first season, Stellan [Skarsgård] and I had some really interesting conversations about Luten’s backstory,” Gilroy recalls. “He had a very different but emotionally similar origin story, and then at some point Stellan told me, 'I don't want revenge. Everyone else has a vengeance. Don't turn this into revenge."
This presented challenges, but nothing that Gilroy and the team couldn't solve. “There are only a certain number of reasons why you change your life, and one of them is just absolute self-loathing. So we found a way for him to get enough of it at the right time.”
In the second season, the mysterious and determined Kleya Marki plays an even more prominent role, played by Elizabeth Dulau. “Elizabeth just amazed us every day we worked with her, and so we wanted to do more and more with her,” says Gilroy.“We always thought their relationship really needed an explanation. We also made the decision to keep Clay as consistent as she was as a child as she is as an adult, so that she would always be fully formed in some sense."
General Hospital
The insert with these flashbacks is Kleia's modern mission: to find Luten in the closed Lina Soh Hospital on Coruscant. Gilroy remembers this part of the filming of Andor fondly. “The hospital location was a favorite because it was very vulnerable from a budget perspective. It was always under pressure and perhaps shouldn't have happened, and then it turned out to be an elegant, effective set."
It also represents more maturing for the filmmakers over the course of the show. “When we started, we were terrified of Coruscant. What were we going to do? He's so big! So the idea that we could do this huge hospital and really show a different part of Coruscant life—I was really amazed by what everyone else there did."
Safety Blanket
Even more than in the hospital, however, the Andora showrunner found “solace” in the harsh corridors of the Imperial Security Bureau headquarters. “Those scenes just unfolded exactly the way they were meant to, and everyone just loved the set. “everything is filmed perfectly there.”
They also provided an opportunity to expand the white-clad cadre of ISB support executives, including the mole Luten Lonni-Jung . "At the end of the first season, I'm sure if you had asked me if Lonnie would last much longer, I would have said no," Gilroy says.“But then we started planning how we were going to get the information they had at the beginning of Rogue One about Jedha and Galen Erso. Where did this information come from?
For Gilroy, this initially seemed like a very difficult problem, but it slowly (and “incredibly well”) began to line up and present itself. “She went from Dedra, who made her way legally, to Lonnie, to Luten, to Klee. After Lonnie Jung receives the stolen information, everything suddenly becomes very sluggish."
Time flies
Andor may be over, but its legacy continues as part of the Star Wars mythology and as part of the lives of those who worked on it. The last day was full of similar emotions for Gilroy and the entire team.
“When we finished the last day at Pinewood Studios, everyone knew it was the end. We set up a big screen and some of the editors made a really great trailer for season two. Several hundred people watched it, and many of them cried. For most people, this was five years of their life. These were five years of my life.”
As it concludes, the show takes on a rather timeless appeal, and this was achieved thanks to Gilroy's incredible attention to detail. “I think the key to making something timeless is to make it so deep and rich that you can watch it once and go through the story, but then there's so much more to it,” Gilroy says. “So much attention was paid to every deep frame of the story that you can find different things in it every time you watch it.You can see how hard everyone has worked and you can see how everything is connected in ways you haven't seen before. To me, I think timeless means you can just go back and watch something over and over again."
Now that his journey to Andor is complete, Gilroy is proud of his achievement and also confident in his contribution. “I know I've always been considered an outsider to Star Wars. I don't think that's true. At this point, I have over 24 hours ofStar Warscanon on my resume, so I think my paperwork is in order.” We tend to agree.
Via StarWars.com