Believe it or not, there are people out there who aren’t necessarily Star Wars fans. They may know about the universe and be apathetic about it, or they may even be avoidant. Tony Gilroy, the showrunner for the upcoming Disney Plus show Andor, hopes the new take will bring in those people.
Andor is a spinoff of a spinoff. Back in 2016, we got the excellent Rogue One, a one-off Star Wars story about the rebels that stole the plans for the Death Star so that it could be destroyed. It was a prequel where everyone died, so Andor is a prequel to that prequel. In an interview with Collider, Gilroy said he hopes the story will bring in people who’ve so far kept their distance.
“The show exists because there’s an enormous, arterial, important, passionate Star Wars community, and I know it’s not a monolithic community. There are many different version and factions within it, but there’s a huge dedicated Star Wars community that shows up.”
While he makes this point, he also understands the need to also attract a new audience, so he kept that in mind when creating the show.
“At the same time, it’s no secret that a lot of people are Star Wars adjacent or Star Wars averse, and they should also be able to watch our show. Our show is designed so that this could be your entry point into Star Wars. You could watch our 24 episodes, and that could be your way in. We’re doing a show that does not require any prior knowledge whatsoever to get involved.”
The goal, he said, is to “bring something that’s so intense emotionally” and marry “the smallest domestic dramas and the smallest interpersonal relationships” within “epic, tectonic, revolutionary, historical moments where people have to make huge decisions.”
Diego Luna, who plays the titular character, said that just having Gilroy on as a writer makes the show “very special.”
“Tony is not a writer that lives in the language of right and wrong, or black and white. He spends his time in the complexity of the gray areas and the contradictions of the characters. … This is a show about real people. It’s very dark times in the galaxy. There are no Jedis around. These people having have to articulate a reaction to oppression. It’s the most grounded kind of Star Wars that you’ll get.”
The first three episodes of Andor drop on Sept. 21, with the following nine episodes released weekly after that.
