The “Star Wars” universe continues to expand on the small screen through Lucasfilm‘s many growing Disney+ shows. On the horizon later this summer, “Andor” centers on Diego Luna‘s Cassian Andor from “Rogue One,” exploring how his character became involved with the Rebellion. The story will be told in the form of a spy and film noir genre rather than the usual action-adventure tone we’ve seen in countless films/spinoffs as the show hopes to become appealing to a wider audience.
While speaking with Vanity Fair, Tony Gilroy (“Michael Clayton,” the ‘Bourne‘ series writer), the co-writer and showrunner— who came on board as a writer/director/producer to fix “Rogue One” in reshoots and post-production—outlines that their main mission for the sci-fi spy series is to attract non-fans to watch the series. Other “Star Wars” shows might be hard to navigate or enjoy for those unaware of the nerdy mythology or connect to the endless volume of character cameos and Gilroy wanted to create something beyond those super-interconnected stories and something more standalone. Instead, the writer/director alluded to attempting to grab folks with strong storytelling rather than flashy fan-service elements that have become a bit of a surge lately.
“The really passionate Star Wars community … All those people have a lot of people in their lives that are Star Wars hesitant, or Star Wars averse, or Star Wars reluctant,” he explained. “Their roommate, their husband, the guy at work, whatever.”
“I mean, I want my wife to be watching this show,” Gilroy says. “She couldn’t care less. She’s not that interested in it. She hasn’t been interested in it for the last two years. But my goal is that she really is like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got to see the next episode.’ Without losing anybody, it’s really about enhancing what we have.”
Gilroy also teased Genevieve O’Reilly‘s (“Rogue One”) Mon Mothma “Star Wars” Rebel leader character might finally get a breakout moment and do more than simply dish-out exposition in a room full of various military figures. “I bet that when episode 104 plays, when Mon Mothma finishes the episode, that there’ll be people tweeting about Mon Mothma,” Gilroy said of the Rebellion leader.
You might remember in “Rogue One” there is already an established relationship between Andor and Mon Mothra.
Although, Gilroy is keeping mum about how the two characters will cross paths he did tease they do not meet until later. “It is a huge, orchestral, Dickensian ensemble cast, with Diego at the middle of it, and Genevieve at the middle of another part of it,” he explained. “They intersect. I’m not going to get into how they intersect. They do have an intersection—but they do not meet. They will not meet until the second half.”
We’re also expected to see the return of Forest Whitaker‘s extremist rebel fighter Saw Gerrera but Lucasfilm has been quick to point out that despite an earlier version of the show having Alan Tudyk set to return as the breakout droid K-2SO, he’ll unlikely in the series until season two (which we’re presuming gets announced at “Star Wars” Celebration later this month).
We’re still waiting on a concrete date from Disney+, but “Andor” is expected to drop sometime this summer and that would mean a trailer with new footage is just around the corner.