By early s, Star Wars Celebration 2025 to get fans even more excited for the series’ return. From Tony Gilroy, who helped bring Rogue One: A Star Wars Story to the finish line, Andor also features creatives behind House of Cards, Succession, and Chernobyl, essentially making it Star Wars-branded prestige TV. In a unique creative decision, the show’s second season will tell its story across four 3-episode arcs, each of which represents a different year leading up to the events of Rogue One.

Andor season 2 first reactions have extensively praised the new series, which is a testament to the creatives as well as its cast. Diego Luna returns as Cassian Andor, as do Adria Arjona (Bix Caleen), Genevieve O’Reilly (Mon Mothma), Denise Gough (Dedra Meero), and Kyle Soller (Syril Karn). Alan Tudyk is a newcomer to Andor, but no stranger to his character K2SO or Diego Luna’s titular hero, as he was a key player in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

In separate interviews, ScreenRant’s Ash Crossan spoke with the creatives and cast of Andor season 2. They discussed the process of bringing what ScreenRant’s Andor season 2 review called “the best Star Wars TV show” to screens, from reconfiguring an initial five-season vision to work in two, to delving deeper into the life of Cassian Andor himself. Plus, they discussed bringing fan-favorite characters like the droid K-2SO back into the fold.

Diego Luna & Alan Tyduk Compare Andor Season 2 To Rogue One

“Everything Is Emotionally Weighted In The Second Season”

Diego Luna and Alan Tudyk were together at Star Wars Celebration teasing the reunion of Cassian Andor and his faithful droid companion K-2SO. They began by reliving a particularly fun moment from the set of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, in which Tudyk had to slap Diego Luna’s Cassian. It was Luna who came up with the idea, but it was Tudyk who sent things off the rails.

“The slap was supposed to happen,” Luna said, “The problem with Alan is that he was allowed to say all the s*** he wanted because they were going to replace his face. It was like, ‘[Alan] can improvise,’ but [then] you are the idiot standing next to this guy that has to pretend it’s not happening.”

“It was so much fun,” Tudyk added. “As long as I said the line once, then they had it. After that, I could say [anything, as long as it had the basic idea of the line.”

“That happens to me when I work in English,” Luna said. “[They go], ‘Just say it the way it’s written once. Just make sure we understand, once, what you are saying. The rest of the time, wing it. Many, many times in Rogue One, they used that improvisation.”

Rogue One is not exactly a light romp in the Star Wars universe, but Andor season 2 was still a more serious affair both in front of and behind the camera. “When I shot, it was a tense time, actually, in the business,” Tudyk said. “Tony had to leave because the strike happened, and we were nearing a strike, so we had a timer going and [were] trying to get everything done before the strike happened. It was fun and it was beautiful to be back … but we were in a crunch on the story. [It] was very serious.”

Luna jumped in as well, saying, “I think the tone in Andor is different than Rogue One, for sure. In Rogue One, we had moments where we were allowed to be light and fun. There’s darkness in Rogue One too, but there were moments that were meant to be funny and loose. Andor doesn’t have many of those. And you’ll see a different tone in K-2’s performance, in Alan’s performance, because everything is emotionally weighted in the second season.”

Tony Gilroy Explains Condensing Andor’s Original 5-Season Plan

“It Was Impossible”

Andor has achieved many firsts when it comes to the Star Wars universe, including the first in-universe use of sunglasses. “On Rogue One,” Tony Gilroy said, “there were no glasses around whatsoever … no paper, no wheels, no knot. At one point there were no knives.”

Another first, or at least very rare, occurrence, is that the creatives behind Andor actually wanted the show to run for fewer seasons than originally planned. The show was originally supposed to have five, but Gilroy and others worked to ensure Andor’s second season would be its last. “We were shooting season one,” Gilroy said, “I was up in Scotland … and I was trying to figure out what I was going to do going forward.”

“We'd promised five seasons–that was the deal,” Gilroy continued, “and [Diego and I] were in the backyard of this little hotel up in Pitlockery having a scotch, [thinking] it was impossible. We’d be making [the show] for the next 30 years. I'd be in assisted living and [Diego would] be on his 19th facelift, and what would we do?”

“It’s not from some act of genius,” Gilroy said of the decision to make Andor season 2 cover four years of Cassian’s life. “It was like, ‘Oh my God, we have four years to cover, and we have four blocks of three episodes. Well, that’s a coincidence.’ I probably took that upstairs to the hotel room and just started sketching on it, thinking, [What would you do if you did that? What if you only came back for a couple days at a time?’”

“So often on this show,” Gilroy added, “Things that are really big problems almost always lead to a really incredible solution. If you follow them all the way through, they almost always lead to something better.”

That workload was so intense, though, that Gilroy is done with Star Wars–at least for the foreseeable future. “I think I really have given a lot,” Gilroy said, “and it’s time for me to go do something else. I’m trying to get a movie off [the ground]. I’ll never say never, but it’s been five and a half, six years. If you throw in Rogue One, it goes into ten."

"I’ve left [things] in better shape than I found them, and I feel good about that. Right now, I’d like to leave it at that.”

Genevieve O’Reilly & Adria Arjona On How Andor Season 2’s Time Jumps Affected Their Performances

“How Much Does Someone Really Change In A Year?

The format of Andor season 2 is unlike that of most other shows, Star Wars or not. “It was interesting to approach it,” Bix Caleen actor Adria Arjona said, “because how much does someone really change in a year? You’re like ‘In five years someone changes, and there are physical changes, maybe, but in a year there aren’t that many.’ It was interesting to approach it from that side. [But] I spoke to Diego a lot. I spoke to Tony … [and] a lot of the information [about] the gaps that I was looking for [was] all on the page.”

For Genevieve O’Reilly, who plays Mon Mothma, “It’s only a year … but then you land in a really laser-pointed moment of usually about two or three days, and so it really allows for a specificity of work in regard to what we do. You get to bring a really magnified character study to that moment. I found it actually quite liberating.”

Syril Karn & Dedra Meero’s Relationship Explained By Kyle Soller & Denise Gough

“I Think They’re Kinky”

In the Andor season 1 finale, low-ranking Imperial officer Syril Karn kisses ISB officer Dedra Meero. In the second season, the characters have an established romantic relationship that Dedra Meero actor Denise Gough believes is a smart contrast to the love between Cassian Andor and Bix Caleen. “There’s Syril and Dedra, and there’s Bix and Cassian,” Gough said, “Bix and Cassian have had, in their lives, examples of love, community, loyalty, [and] all of that stuff. Neither [Syril nor Dedra] come from that.”

“There’s something interesting about playing, ‘What happens when two people who have no skills at any of that stuff [are] in a room together, or in a relationship together?’”

“It shows what the oppressive regime of the Empire does to love, which is restrict it, restrain it, and manipulate it,” Kyle Soller added. “And Syril and Dedra’s love is quite intense, but it’s strangled. [It’s] strangled by the Empire, how they were brought up, and the world that they live in. It’s really tragic, actually, at the end of the day.”

There is one scene in Andor season 2 where the lights in Dedra Meero’s apartment go off, suggesting some romantic time for Dedra and Syril. “I don’t think it’s very soft [and] sensual,” Gough said, with Kyle Soller adding, “There were a number of very interesting accoutrements by their bedside tables.”

“That nobody saw,” Gough interjected. “Although, maybe if you freeze frame as I’m lying in bed, [you could see them. There were] spiky things, extendable things, cylindrical things…”

Or, in Soller’s words, “I think they’re kinky.”

Andor season 2 premieres April 22 on Disney+.

Source: Screen Rant Plus