Andor’s showrunner, Tony Gilroy, has opened up with blunt honesty about his initial regret over taking on the show’s original plan. As many will be aware,Andorseason 2’s timelinewas initially stretched out over five seasons. Gilroy and his team committed to this plan, before condensing this story into the one that culminated withAndorseason 2’s ending. Four seasons were instead turned into four, three-episode blocks, each one takingAndorseason 2’s castcloser to the events ofRogue One.
In an interview with Josh Horowitz for theHappy, Sad, Confusedpodcast, Gilroy addressed the initial five-season plan. Gilroy’s blunt nature meant he was not afraid to outline his regret about the five seasons he had committed to, especially in the midst of COVID-19 when production on the show began in 2020:
“I regretted it. I was hoping Covid would take the show away…I was kinda shamed into continuing. I was rewriting everything, we started hiring directors. Around late winter I was able to get out of quarantine… and go up to Scotland where we were shooting. By that point, the work that was required to make the show, at its minimum, was just dazzlingly blinding to look at. AndDiego [Luna]… was like ‘Oh my god, we told them we’d do five years.’ Nobody, if we were gonna do it like this, you couldn’t physically do it. It was just impossible…We came up with a plan to do the four years of the second season in one season. And that led to a whole series of interesting decisions.”
Not only is Gilroy frankly honest about his initial regrets, but he outlines exactly why he and Diego Luna decided to think about two seasons ofAndor. As it turns out, it was the sheer scale of the show that caused this reduction. One may consider this a blessing as, based on Gilroy’s comments, the filmmaker was not overly pleased about his initial decisions.
Tony Gilroy’s View On Andor’s Five Seasons Was Probably Right
The Show’s Scale Just Wasn’t Sustainable
It is safe to say Gilroy was right aboutAndor’s scale being impossible to uphold. In a franchise likeStar Wars, so many sets, costumes, and props need to be crafted to create entire planets from a galaxy far, far away. The production ofAndorwill not have been as simple as some of Gilroy’s other movies that take place in our world and require a fraction of the time and budget to put on camera. This is not to dismiss non-Star Warsproductions as easy, but there is no denying the extra work required to build an entire galaxy.
Gilroy’s comments were not merely an exaggeration, with the budget ofAndorproving just how much work went into only two seasons…
This is evident inAndor’s budget. The two seasons crafted by Gilroy and his team cost Lucasfilm a whopping $645 million to produce, ranking it as easily the most expensive entry in the entire franchise, even above the feature films. Gilroy’s comments were not merely an exaggeration, with the budget ofAndorproving just how much work went into only two seasons. Spreading this budget over five seasons, it is not hard to see whyAndor’s original plan was just simply not feasible.
Gilroy’s Fear & Regret Was Only Human, But It Didn’t Impact The Show’s Quality
Image via Disney+
Overall, it is hard to blame Gilroy for having these fears over the initial five-seasonAndorplan. For any filmmaker, the size of this production would have been overwhelming, never mind someone who, as Gilroy continues to reiterate, holds no real love or fandom for theStar Warsfranchise. Adding a COVID-laden production into the mix too, and it is no surprise Gilroy was secretly hoping for the show to be taken away, at least at first. Thankfully, though,Andor’s creator did not let this regret impact the show’s quality, allowing it to become the bestStar WarsTV show in history.
