Andor is a show developed by Tony Gilroy, the creative who co-wrote Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. And that’s probably the only reason why (despite the fact that no one asked or wanted a series revolving around the titular smuggler) every galaxy far, far away enthusiast is begrudgingly waiting for the 12-episode first season to drop on Disney Plus next month.
Cautious optimism is the best that the Star Wars fandom currently has to offer Andor, perhaps because it’s a project that’s taken Lucasfilm longer to make than each of the sequel trilogy movies. Gilroy himself thinks this has been an exciting experience due to the sheer scale of things, as he explained it to Empire magazine in a recent profile.
“The scale of the show is so huge. Directors work in blocks of three episodes, so we did four blocks [in Season 1] of three episodes each. We looked and said, ‘Wow, it’d be really interesting if we come back, and we use each block to represent a year. We’ll move a year closer with each block.’ From a narrative point of view, it’s really exciting to be able to work on something where you do a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and then jump a year.”
The entire story will span five years, told in 24 episodes, with another 12-episode second season now in the wings. The opening run will deal with the first year of the Rebellion’s struggle against the Empire, while the sophomore set will depict the next four, leading right into the events of Rogue One.
There’s no telling how long it will actually take to make the next batch of episodes, given all the difficulties and delays that accompany productions of this scale, but at least Gilroy seems to retain a clear vision for where everything is going.
The first two episodes of Andor are slated for an Aug. 31 debut on Disney Plus.