Posted in: Disney+, Star Wars, TV | Tagged: andor

Andor Creator Tony Gilroy on How The Mandalorian "Protected" Series

Creator/showrunner Tony Gilroy explains why there wouldn't be an "Andor" without Lucasfilm's support and the success of "The Mandalorian."

No one can ever accuse Tony Gilroy of being ungrateful as Andor is the second live-action Star Wars series to ever see a second season on Disney+ after the streamer's flagship series The Mandalorian The Jon Favreau series made its debut in 2019 to help launch the platform and easily has become the most successful live-action franchise series to date. With uncertainly surrounding The Mandalorian's fourth season and the upcoming 2026 release of The Mandalorian & Grogu, Andor will bow gracefully after the second season as it paves directly to 2016's Rogue One, leaving Asoka the only other Star Wars live-action series still active as filming will be underway soon given the uncertain fates of Skeleton Crew, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and The Book of Boba Fett and cancellation of The Acolyte.

Andor Creator Tony Gilroy Grateful for Lucasfilm's Support and Protection

As far as how ambitious Andor is, Gilroy said a series of this nature "will never happen again," telling Empire, "Not because we're so great, but because no one's ever gonna start a show on this scale again, and shoot it practically, and have the resources and the protection to do something like this." The creator and showrunner is also thankful of all the support he's received. "We were protected all the way down the line. Kathy [Kennedy] protected us. Lucasfilm protected us. Bob Iger protected us. The audience protected us. 'The Mandalorian' protected us. We had all these people out there backing our play."

With positive reception to the Pedro Pascal-starred show came the opportunities, "The success of 'The Mandalorian' gave us the platform to jump off," Gilroy explains. "Their success is what would fuel the whole thing. I mean, no Baby Yoda, no Andor. Seriously. Don't think that we don't know that." Gilroy is also cognizant of how divided Star Wars fans can be. "Online, [people] try to drive a wedge all the time between us and [Jon] Favreau and [Dave] Filoni," he said. "It's horrible what people say; it's terrible. And the truth is, we don't have a show without them. They gave us the muscle to go."

Season two of Andor, which stars Diego Luna, Stellan Skarsgård, Alan Tudyk, Denise Gough, Kyle Soller, Genevieve O'Reilly, Adria Arjona, Forest Whitaker, Benjamin Bratt, and Ben Mendelsohn, premieres on Disney+ on April 22nd.

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