SPOILER ALERT:The following interview contains details aboutAndorSeason 2 episodes 1-3.
DEADLINE:What a great way to begin a Star Wars series, with Cassian wrangling that tie-fighter.
For anyone who has played a Star Wars video game, thats bliss.
‘Andor’ creator Tony Gilroy and Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma on the setLucasfilm/Disney
Was that a love letter to the fans?
TONY GILROY:It was a really, cool fun idea.
It does a bunch of things for me.
(L-R) John Gilroy, Tony Gilroy andDan Gilroyat the ‘Andor’ Season 2 launch event at El Capitan Theatre(Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)
It provides Cassians contact with the young woman at the beginning.
It shows what Cassian has been doing for the last year, what hes been doing for Luthen.
It reenforces the very thing he told Luthen in their first meeting: You walk in like you belong.
Hes the stud that should be doing this.
Then he doesnt know how to fly it.
But the whole scene is a bit of an answer to anyone who said we started slow last time.
Theres a couple of places where we are doing things intentionally.
It was a little bit of reaction on my part.
We can start hot if we want to.
DEADLINE:Talk about kicking off with the wedding.
And he said, Well, its not going to cost you anything.
I dont need your money.
But what do you want?
The wedding is anticipated at the end of Season 1.
Its something I have to do.
She has to put a hit on the guy who helped her because hes a liability.
Its impossible now for her to escape the momentum of whats happened.
Mon Mothma is marrying her daughter off.
She feels terrible about it.
She tries to give her daughter an exit strategy.
Her daughter just shuts her down as cold as possible, thats just brutal.
Because the stakes are so high, she has to sign his death warrant at wedding.
Thats how shes starting Season 2.
Shes in a world of hurt there.
DEADLINE:Season 2 was impacted by the strikes.
Can you talk about where you were in the series before the WGA strike?
Youre a creator and a showrunner of a show.
Even though youre not writing, theres other things that you’re free to do.
Were you in the editing room?
GILROY:The way we make the show, Ive described earlier, its our own method.
Theres something sort of scientific about it.
We get the scripts to the point of absolute perfection.
The last one is done by the AD and the director alone.
The best version is I dont ever say anything.
I dont ever go to set.
I visit every once in a while, ceremonially.
Sometimes the phone will ring at 4 a.m. and its like, what are we going to do?
But by and large, its done.
My job is done at that point, until they finish shooting and then we do the post.
The writers strike happens in May.
Ive been writing for five years.
I wont have to write anymore.
So, they had all the blueprints for everything they needed to do.
I cant go visit.
I cant talk on the phone, but I can do music, right?
And the guild was like, Oh my god, no, we cant do anything.
I had no contact.
I was completely absent from the show for six months.
DEADLINE:You come out of the strike.
What state is the show in?
Ive never seen a complete …
I think I saw part of episode 4, which had shot early.
Id seen a rough cut of that.
He brings me 12 episodes.
Theres all kinds of things that theyre missing because of the SAG strike.
I got to watch it like the audience is going to watch it.
I make 100 pages of notes in a couple days.
There were four cutting rooms open, and I was just running around.
Can you talk about the dynamic between the three of you while making the show?
GILROY:Well, the amount of involvement is radically different between the two of them.
I mean, Johnny was with me onRogue One.
When hes in, hes there all the time.
Johnny moved to London five years ago.
Hes almost been like a hostage for me.
We started shooting during Covid, because we were one of the first shows that started back up.
It almost does a really great disservice to describe him in any way as an editor.
But it has so much more to do with how we construct the show.
Theres so many side projects.
Its a real construction project.
We gave [director] Ben Caron and [DP] Damian Garcia the benefit of everything.
Get your iPhones out.
Bring it back to the cutting room.
Well cut mock versions of it all the way through.
Well take that out.
Well put all the music on it.
Well see where we bump.
Were using that as the wraparound for a huge crescendo of different stories.
Hows that going to work?
So, again, were side hustling that and building it.
Johnnys working on that and filling in all over the place.
Its total filmmaking, what he does.
DEADLINE:Whats your volley with Dan?
We have four blocks of three episodes, and we need four years.
What if we did a block per year?
So, I sketched that out, got approval from Disney and Kathleen Kennedy.
I had to prove that the concept would work.
So, I had to write the top and the tail of every block.
I had to write the first scene of every one.
So, I have the shape of the season.
I write the first three episodes in; I write them for the room.
Then the guys come in, and we go through it beat by beat by beat.
We beat it out, and Beau Willimon stands at the white board like a real showrunner.
I worked for Beau onHouse of Cards.
I figure out who seems the most suited for each block.
Theyre not around, but the writing continued.
Im beating the sh*t out of my scripts and rewriting those.
It all has to come from this depth.
When we did Aldhani, there was no Covid.
It was supposed to be 10,000 indigenous people there.
It was a whole different vibe.
So, that all had to be rewritten.
Hes off on another project.
Im doing it, but I got to run it by him all the time.
Im also talking to Beau all the time.
All of them, calling and sending them scenes and seeing what they think.
We dont really get any notes, ever, creatively.
If you take 24 episodes divided by two hours, thats 12 movies.
Thats 12 two-hour movies.
That works out to be around $54M for each movie.
Were the most efficient.
DEADLINE:Is there moreStar Warsin you, or is this it?
GILROY:Not that I can imagine at this point.
No, not my intention right now.
No, Ive been doing it for 10 … its 10 years now, betweenRogue Oneand this.
