The Rogue Ones: A Star Wars Andor Podcast returns with hosts Mike DeAngelo and The Playlist’s Editor-In-Chief, Rodrigo Perez. As with the previous episodes, each week, our hosts will recap and review the latest “Andor” episode and welcome cast members and creatives from the show to discuss all things “Andor” and all the intrigue and machination of the “Star Wars” galaxy.
In the latest episode of The Rogue Ones, our hosts break down their thoughts on Episode 11 of “Andor,” entitled “Daughter of Ferrix,” which dropped on Disney+ today. After the discussion, Andor himself, Diego Luna (“Narcos: Mexico,” “Y Tu Mamá También”), joins the podcast to discuss his journeys with the show and character.
Also included in this episode, is our conversation with actor Duncan Pow (“Black Mirror”), who plays Melshi on the show, and is a character from “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (you can read more about Pow and his “Star Wars” journey here).
For the uninitiated, “Andor,” created by Academy Award-nominated writer/director Tony Gilroy (“Michael Clayton”), serves as a prequel to “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (which Gilroy rewrote and worked on extensively in the reshoots), which itself is a prequel; set just before the events of “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.” The Lucasfilm series follows Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) five years before meeting Jyn Erso and the gang in ‘Rogue One,’ as he finds himself thrust into the middle of a budding rebel cell with plans to put a stick in the Empire’s eye. It’s a first for the Star Wars universe, as it acts as a political spy thriller that really considers the age of oppression, life during wartime, and what it’s like to be on the ground as a member of the rebel alliance and as a member of the Imperial Army. Going even deeper, “Andor” really examines what it’s like for everyday people struggling under an oppressive regime. The show also stars Stellan Skarsgard, Genevieve O’Reilly, Adria Arjona, Kyle Soller, Fiona Shaw, and more.
In our interview with Diego Luna, the actor discusses what he believes makes Andor, the character and the show, so unique.
“Once you know this character is capable of giving everything for a cause— that he’s willing to sacrifice what you and I probably wouldn’t, he is willing to do that to bring change,” Luna shared. “Once you understand someone is capable of that, going back and finding out that you could have so much in common with someone like that makes it really interesting as an audience to watch. The journey of this man should feel as grounded as yours, as rich and as complex as yours. The idea is that you go through this journey and say, ‘Damn, is that really the [same] guy I saw in “Rogue One?”‘ Is that possible? That transformation, that awakening, is possible, and I think it’s what Tony Gilroy has been doing in the most beautiful and profound way.”
Asked about whether he was aware from the jump, with his early conversations with showrunner, creator, and writer Tony Gilroy about just how far afield the show would be from traditional “Star Wars” and how it breaks that mold, Luna said that was the goal from the beginning.
“It was not just a decision, but it was an amazing challenge,” Luna said. “I think we can blame ‘Rogue One’ for this. ‘Rogue One’ was meant to be different. It was the first stand-alone ‘Star Wars’ story; they found many ways to say this is supposed to be different. The first big difference is it had a beginning and an end; that was it… You meet a character and then goodbye. And ‘Rogue One’ had an opportunity to be different, to have a different tone, to be acted by different people that you might not expect to see in the ‘Star Wars’ universe, it was more violent, darker and we got away with that. Audiences liked it, they liked it a lot, and that’s why we’re doing ‘Andor.’”
‘You wouldn’t call Tony Gilroy if you didn’t want something [different],” Luna continued. “Tony Gilroy is such a different writer; I can tell you I have never felt that energy with anyone else. The way he makes every line, every step, every character meaningful, there’s a reason for everything. If you sit down in front of him, there’s no answer he cannot give. He’s thought of everything before sharing it. It’s quite impressive to see how control he is of this story.”
Asked about Season 2, Luna echoed many of Gilroy’s previous comments about the direction of the series.
“Well, we are walking [into ‘Rogue One,’] yes,” he explained. “One thing that we’ve said and everyone knows is that the next season ends just before ‘Rogue One,’ we’re going to get all the way there, and many things are going to happen that I think some people are expecting. But definitely, there’s no way to avoid it.”
“Andor” is set over one year, and Season 2 is placed over the course of four years, condensing that period of Cassian Andor’s life in the Rebel Alliance. We asked, does that mean we’re in for a slightly different show that’s maybe turbocharged?
“The pace is going to change, but it’s not going to change that much because we shot this [season] in blocks of three,” he explained. “Now we’re going to do that [again], we’re going to do blocks of three that take us through four years, and it’s going to be quite an interesting thing to witness. Another important thing, and this we cannot deny, is when we started doing this, none of us had done something in this format. We were thinking film. And now we understand what it is to deliver something that comes weekly and that rhythm, what it means. Obviously, that learning will reflect in the next season.”
Here’s our complete podcast breakdown of “Andor,” Episode 11, plus our entire conversations with Diego Luna and Duncan Pow.
The Rogue Ones is part of The Playlist Podcast Network—which includes The Playlist Podcast, Yellowstoners, Deep Focus, The Fourth Wall, The Discourse, Bingeworthy, and more—and can be heard on Apple Podcasts, AnchorFM, Soundcloud, Stitcher, and now on Spotify. Be sure to subscribe and drop us a comment or a rating, as we appreciate it. Thank you for listening.
