The year is BBY 4. Maarva Andor’s funeral has become a distant memory as we pick up with the characters in Andor Season 2, in the first of four three-episode weekly premieres that will bridge the four years leading up to the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

The talented cast of Andor — including Cassian Andor himself, Diego Luna, alongside co-stars Adria Arjona, Genevieve O’Reilly, Stellan Skarsgård, returning Rogue One alumni, Ben Mendelsohn and Alan Tudyk, and many more — sit down to reflect on their characters, the journey so far, and excitement for the road ahead.

Diego Luna - Cassian Andor

Cassian Andor was largely on the run for Season 1, and while the threat of the Empire continues to loom over everything in his life, Season 2 gives star and executive producer Diego Luna a chance to explore his character’s personal life with more depth.

For Cassian, two of the most influential characters in the series are Bix Caleen and Luthen Rael. “Who’s behind this character you know?” Luna asks. “Bix has been there as a friend. She represents that. She’s family, she’s love, she’s home. And Luthen is the teacher. Luthen is the one that grabs his hand and says, ‘Look, there’s a world out there and you can be a part of that.’ I think Luthen represents hope in Cassian’s life.”

Season 2 picks up one year after Maarva Andor’s funeral on Ferrix, a somber event that led to a revolt against the Empire. In the aftermath, Bix, Brasso, and Wilmon Paak are fugitives, and Cassian has been firmly set on his path to join the rebels. As a result, when we meet Cassian this season, he’s a changed man.

“Where we left Season 1 has nothing to do with where we start Season 2,” Luna hints. “He’s working for Luthen’s team and he’s been quite successful. He’s been given a lot of responsibilities now, so it’s far from that guy that was difficult to trust, difficult to read. Right now, he’s a man on a mission.”

And we still have four more years to explore Cassian's journey, which gives the character plenty of room to grow. “He still doesn’t feel part of something bigger, you know? I think he still has a lot of doubts and he’s still trying to figure things out,” Luna adds. “There’s a long way to go for him to become the Cassian Andor we meet in Rogue One. There’s still a lot that needs to happen to him and a lot of things he has to witness.”

Luna can’t wait for audiences to revisit Rogue One when the season is through, with a fresh perspective on Cassian’s tragedies and triumphs. “It’s quite exciting to think about the speech he has in Rogue One, because after watching Season 2, you’ll understand what he means. When he talks about why he’s there, what he has done, and why it’s worth it to give it all for the cause.”

Adria Arjona - Bix Caleen

When we last saw Bix Caleen, she was a woman broken by the Empire’s brutal and invasive torture tactics. Along the four year journey this season, star Adria Arjona promises we’ll see the character’s evolution in more depth as she tries to claw her way back from the brink. “The evolution of these characters is pretty intense,” Arjona says. “You see so much growth and so much destruction happen over the course of these couple years.”

Although the series traces the creation of the Rebellion, every character in the series is also waging their own personal rebellion, Arjona says. For Bix, much of that struggle is happening emotionally. “A lot happened to her in Season 1,” Arjona says. “And she wants to be strong and she wants to be tough. It makes her rebellion internal and self-destructive.”

Alongside her fellow Ferrixians, we’ll find out what happened to Bix after she left her home world behind. “Bix and Brasso and Wilmon are refugees, like so many people all over the world for so many centuries,” she adds. In addition to real-world influences, Arjona owes much of her gratitude for Bix’s DNA to creator and executive producer Tony Gilroy, she says. “He is a brilliant writer. No one’s written for me like Tony has.”

Genevieve O’Reilly - Senator Mon Mothma

Genevieve O’Reilly has played Mon Mothma, the senator from Chandrila, off and on for over 20 years, but nothing could fully prepare her for the richness of her deeply-personal journey in Andor. In Season 1, Andor began to examine the personal sacrifices Mothma makes to fund and support the burgeoning rebellion. In the final episodes, we watched as she introduced her teenage daughter to an oligarch’s son, a distasteful reception that was necessary to help cover her financial difficulties.

“I felt sick with complication for Mon Mothma the woman and Mon Mothma the rebel,” O’Reilly says of reading the next chapter of her journey in Season 2, which will build on Season 1’s exploration of Mon’s personal life. “The structure of the season is really interesting. I’ve never done anything like that before,” she adds. Each three-episode arc is separated by a year, allowing for a rapid evolution of characters and events driving toward the Mon we know from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story — a calm, dignified leader on Yavin 4. “You can really feel the march of a rebellion, the encroachment of the Empire. Each jump we make…[the Empire got] more smothering. More electric. More dramatic.”

While this season will revisit scenes from Mon’s home life as the mother of Leida and wife to Perrin Fertha, O’Reilly is most curious about exploring Mon’s rise in the Rebel Alliance. “The Mon that I am deeply interested in is the emergence of a leader,” she says. “There are times in the season where I was excited to see her emerge. And there are times in the season where I was surprised at the genuine weight of rebellion and the pain of that. Her arc was different than I thought. But now that we’ve gone through it and filmed it, I know her a little bit differently.”

Stellan Skarsgård - Luthen Rael

As Luthen Rael, Stellan Skarsgård portrays the literal duality of the rebel experience. By day, he’s a mild-mannered shop keeper selling antiquities from his beautiful gallery, hiding in plain sight among Coruscant’s elite. In a twist, it’s this persona that’s his disguise, not his incarnation as a rebel operative. When he removes the wig and the finery, Luthen Rael is ready to take on the Empire, one covert strike at a time.

“Luthen is quite an interesting character,” Skarsgård says. “There’s a lot of contradictions in him, which attracts me because I really don’t like the idea of good and evil people. I think it’s an incredibly dangerous way to look at humans, so I’m grateful for the ambiguity of the character. He lives a kind of double life — or maybe triple life, we don’t know.”

As we saw in Season 1, Luthen employs a ruthlessness to his approach to rebelling that sometimes sets Mon Mothma and others on edge, growling with a ferocity that betrays the intensity of his conviction. But, as always, it’s in service to the cause. “He says at one point, ‘I’m condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them.’ And the tools of the enemy are pretty brutal,” Skarsgård notes. “[Luthen is] a different kind of hero.”

Denise Gough - Supervisor Dedra Meero

Denise Gough relishes another chance to explore the twisted mind of Dedra Meero, an Imperial loyalist who is as severe as she is smart.

“All her complexities…playing that is so much fun,” Gough says, allowing her to examine the morally gray character. On the surface, Dedra is villainous, yet believes herself to be firmly in the right. “She’s very sophisticated. She was never going to be just good or bad,” Gough says.

In Dedra’s own mind, “she’s a hero,” Gough adds. “Everyone in this story is the hero of their story, which I think is a sign of great writing. That’s a great ensemble. To me, everybody is the lead in their story.”

When we meet her in Season 2, a year has passed since Supervisor Meero was nearly crushed by the crowd at Ferrix, saved at the last moment by Syril Karn. As we embark on the next chapter in her story, one year later, her loyalty to the Empire and her preoccupation with rebel activity continue to dominate her decisions. “She’s still obsessed with finding Axis,” Gough notes. “She will never stop looking for Axis. Ever.”

Kyle Soller - Syril Karn

Matching Dedra’s level of obsession, Kyle Soller’s Syril Karn is yet another cog in the Imperial machine. Syril is haunted by Cassian, the man whose actions led to the upending of his own career ambitions, and sent him packing home to his mother, Eedy.

If Season 1 was intense for the disgraced Pre-Mor officer, he’s fully embroiled now, with a toehold in Imperial operations on Coruscant and a front-row seat to the potential for rebel destruction.

“It felt like things were turned up to 11 in Season 1,” Soller says. “I don’t know what number they’re turned up to now, but it’s a lot higher. And Syril’s arc — just the potential that is there for him in Season 1 is fully realized and then some. He has expanded into this version of himself that I think he’s always wanted to be.”

When we last saw Syril, he was back on Ferrix, following his fixation with finding Andor and arguably saving Dedra Meero’s life at the hands of an angry mob rioting in the streets. “I thought from the very beginning that the way Tony crafted Syril and Dedra was unlike any other villains that you would normally see in a piece like this,” Soller says. “They’re incredibly human. They’re incredibly flawed. They have these little ticks that just instantly make them more relatable. And they’re both extremely conflicted, extremely demanding, extremely insane.”

Kathryn Hunter - Eedy Karn

Also returning for Season 2, with an amused chuckle that broke the tension of the Andor Season 2 trailer, Kathryn Hunter reprises her role as Syril’s mother Eedy Karn. “I’ve dubbed her with a nickname,” Hunter declares with a laugh. “Needy Eedy.”

In Season 1, audiences were introduced to the tense mother-son dynamic when Syril returned to Coruscant after being fired from his job on Morlana One to be greeted by a slap and a hug. “Probably Syril was quite glad to get away from her for a while,” Hunter says. “However, the thing I love about Eedy is that she’s a great survivor.” When her son is in trouble, Eedy is quick to launch into action. “Don’t worry, Syril. Your mother’s gonna fix it.”

Ben Mendelsohn - Director Orson Krennic

Ben Mendelsohn as Director Orson Krennic

Donning the white cape of Director Orson Krennic once more, Ben Mendelsohn joins the Season 2 cast to reprise his role from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Ambitious and cunning, we reunite with Krennic four years before the Death Star is unleashed, when he’s already a high-ranking official in the Empire striking fear into the hearts of those who make his acquaintance.

“Once you have that cape on and you are in the world of Star Wars…it tells you a lot about what to do,” Mendelsohn says of getting back into character. Gilroy’s Michael Clayton remains one of Mendelsohn’s personal favorite films, so he was elated to join the cast and get the chance to work with Gilroy. “Tony’s writing is superb,” Mendelsohn says. “You look at the scenes, they tell you everything. I love being on set, when the whole machine is all working together. It’s like being at a church…you know, it’s beautiful.”

Joplin Sibtain - Brasso

Brasso has been a departure for Joplin Sibtain, whose resumé included more villainous roles than hardworking, loyal people like Cassian Andor’s Ferrix friend before he was cast in Season 1. “I usually play bad guys so it was a bit of a leap for me to play somebody who’s decent,” Sibtain says. “It’s good to play good people.They’re trickier, to play in a way, because villains are easier to go to. And they’re quite fun.”

Whether in need of an alibi, someone to watch over Cassian’s ailing mother Maarva (and later lay her to rest in a ceremony befitting a Daughter of Ferrix), or a friend who can get Bix and Wilmon Paak to safety, Brasso never waivers in Season 1. “You can build your house on Brasso,” Sibtain says. “Brasso’s a reliable, solid, dependable guy. He’s got no sides to him you know. He’s just stand-up. He’s an uncomplicated person. He’s got your six as they say.”

Off screen, Sibtain has nothing but gratitude for landing the role, which continues in Season 2. “It’s just such a privilege to be part of the world,” he says. “It’s slightly overwhelming.”

Muhannad Bhaier - Wilmon Paak

Wilmon Paak was just a teenaged kid in Season 1, seeking revenge after his father was taken prisoner by the Empire. In actor Muhannad Bhaier’s hands, the raw emotion was palpable. But one year after leaving Ferrix, we’ll be introduced to Wilmon at a new stage in his life.

“In Season 1, he’s just a normal Ferrix citizen, working alongside his father,” Bhaier says. “ I don’t think there’s any sort of dream of becoming this soldier, this rebel.” But after the riot at Maarva Andor’s funeral, including the homemade explosive device that Wilmon lobs into the crowd of Imperials, Wilmon swiftly leaves behind his innocence. “He quickly develops into a man in Season 2,” Bhaier says. “He matures very quickly and that’s because of the situations that he’s been placed in, the pressure, and the people he’s working alongside.”

Behind the scenes, Bhaier has grown up with the series. “It was my first big role and I was incredibly nervous,” he says. But the fully built-out Ferrix set and the incredible cast and crew helped ground the experience. “When you start seeing the ships and all these buttons you’re like, ‘Wait. Hold on. Am I really in Star Wars?’ I grew up watching Star Wars.”

Faye Marsay - Vel Sartha

Mon Mothma’s cousin, Vel Sartha, straddles the line between scrappy rebel and polished Chandrilan socialite. For actor Faye Marsay, that’s been a delicate balance. “I think in Season 1 we saw, yes, she was a rebel. And, yes, she was very strong and her mind was on the rebellion. But, you saw her softness.” When Vel wasn’t leading the Aldhani heist or tracking targets for Luthen, she was reconnecting with Mon and stealing quiet moments with her girlfriend, Cinta Kaz. “We saw a side of Vel that was, I think, quite vulnerable.”

In keeping with the theme that each character is dealing with their own personal and private rebellion, Vel’s fight is partially to break free from her privileged upbringing. “She’s from a wealthy background, a very traditional — one might say conservative — background. And I think that never worked for her,” Marsay says. “There’s a real disconnect from her upbringing. She didn’t want to be a part of that world. Obviously, she’s gay and I think her rebellion is about finding a place that she’s comfortable in a world that reflects who she is.”

The only family members we’ve seen her interact with are Mon and Leida Mothma. But off screen Marsay is grateful to be a part of the larger Star Wars family. “I feel very lucky to be a part of the family. She’s compelling. On the one hand, you could look at her as just kind of a cold soldier for the rebellion. But there’s real heart there to Vel. and There’s a real conflict inside her about who she is and what she needs and what she wants.”

Varada Sethu - Cinta Kaz

In contrast to Vel, Varada Sethu’s deadly Cinta Kaz is more focused on the task at hand than on her personal desires. “Cinta Kaz is first and foremost a rebel and that’s how she prioritizes herself. She has constructed herself into a soldier against the Empire,” Sethu says. “I think it’s her identity. Her whole life’s purpose is to fight the Empire. And then there’s a little snag that’s come across, which is Vel. I think [Cinta] struggles to acknowledge that it’s OK to have that attachment.”

In Season 2, Sethu reprises the role, but promises Cinta’s black and white thinking will be challenged in new ways. “This season, I think it’s more fighting for a quality of life,” she says.

Forest Whitaker - Saw Gerrera

Returning to the series as Saw Gerrera, Forest Whitaker will spend more time exploring the unhinged partisan and the morally gray area he inhabits in the story. Since first playing the rebel in Rogue One, Whitaker has embraced Saw’s eccentricities. “Saw Gerrera is someone who lives on the line,” he says. “Whatever he needed to do, by any cost necessary to save the galaxy, he would do that. He’s fighting by the only means that he has to fight against this giant machine. I don’t think Saw Gerrera is a terrorist. I think he’s someone who’s fighting by what he believes.”

Despite having played Gerrera at a few stages of his life — including providing the voice in Season 3 of Star Wars Rebels for “Ghosts of Geonosis” and “In the Name of the Rebellion” — Whitaker admits it’s still a challenge. “I’m still fighting to understand him more completely,” Whitaker says. “His tactics, how he maneuvers, the pains he suffers from the losses of his sister [Steela] and other people, how that reflects in the scenes with Stellan [as Luthen Rael]. When you meet Saw in Rogue One, he’s come to the end of his line.” In Season 2, we’ll explore a little more of how he got there.

Alan Tudyk - K-2SO

This season also marks the long-awaited return of Alan Tudyk as K-2SO, the reprogrammed Imperial KX droid who often provides moments of levity with his quips and one-liners. When he was first introduced in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, “I approached it as if he were freed, almost like a governor on an engine that holds the personality back,” Tudyk says. “When he is reprogrammed, his personality comes out, which is a bit odd.”

To reprise the role, Tudyk once again donned the Spandex body suit for motion capture and the special ILM-designed stilts to bring K-2SO to life in all his glory.

Meet even more of the cast as Andor Season 2 unfolds, with new episodes streaming every Tuesday on Disney+ beginning April 22, 2025.

Benjamin Bratt - Senator Bail Organa

Stepping into the role of Bail Organa, Star Wars newcomer Benjamin Bratt was elated to portray the rebel hero as written by creator and executive producer Tony Gilroy and his team of writers. “I find the show’s writing to be very spare and yet it’s incredibly elaborate. It says exactly what you need to say to get the essence, the truth of the scene conveyed on the page,” Bratt tells StarWars.com. “Even with the foregone conclusion that tragedy awaits our heroes, it keeps you hopeful. Tony’s story reminds you almost every episode that the human spirit cannot be extinguished. That’s the essence of good storytelling. We as a species have survived for millennia living on the stories we tell about ourselves…At the end of the day, if the human story is not moving you, then we’re not doing our job.”

In Bail’s boots, Bratt was excited for Andor Season 2 to further build out how Organa went from senator to architect of the rebellion. “We learn that he’s a brilliant strategist and capable of bringing some heat to the degree that it’s needed,” he says. “That’s what excited me and drew me to playing the character.”

As the part was previously played by actor Jimmy Smits in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and the prequel films, Bratt knew he had a legacy to uphold. “I’ve always known Jimmy to be an incredibly talented actor,” Bratt adds. “He possesses elegance, a natural grace, a goodness really, an earnestness that this particular character requires.”

Richard Sammel - Carro Rylanz

As Ghorman twillery owner Carro Rylanz, Star Wars newcomer Richard Sammel puts a face to the underground resistance brewing on the Ghorman Front, a reluctant rebel who truly believes in peaceful resistance. “He has to navigate between this ever-increasing oppression and the upsetting feelings of his own people,” Sammel says. “So he preps the underground movement that then turns out to be the spark that ignites the fire.”

Working with creator Tony Gilroy and the rest of the cast and crew has been a joy for Sammel, who compares Andor to “a [modern] Greek tragedy.” Each character in the story must make their own decisions about what they’re willing to sacrifice and fight to preserve. “For [Carro], that’s the right to live a peaceful life and to protect our family and our planet.”

Alaïs Lawson - Enza Rylanz

Alaïs Lawson plays the next generation in the Rylanz family, Carro’s headstrong daughter Enza. “What I find really ambitious is that you know the audience knows where the story’s going to end,” Lawson says. “They’re keeping the audience intrigued right to the end.”

As for her role among the Ghorman rebels, Lawson was interested in telling “the story of what happens when a society that lives in comfort is faced with a dictatorship.” In this microcosm of new characters introduced this week, relationships are built and tested as the strain of the Imperial occupation bears down. Enza and Carro start out in lock step, but “as the episodes go on, you’ll see that Enza becomes weary and tired of her father always wanting to intellectualize and seek out a peaceful way of doing things when she wants to take action.”

Alistair Petrie - General Davits Draven

Star Wars was the first film Alistair Petrie saw in theaters, “and I’ve never forgotten about it,” he says. When he was first cast as General Draven in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, it felt like he was that 7-year-old kid again, climbing out of his theater seat and into the screen. “That’s genuinely what it feels like. A remarkable experience.”

Returning in Andor Season 2, Petrie reprises the role of the gruff Yavin 4 leader and the experience has only extended that dream-like wonder for the actor. “Rogue One resonated because Rogue One was building something,” he says. “[Draven] represents kind of the hawkish side of the Rebellion that diplomacy can only take you so far. And as an actor within that, you want to find nuance. He’s a character that has been brought up in conflict all his life. He’s a military man through and through. So while he understands and is pragmatic about diplomacy, he also knows when the line has been crossed.”

Elizabeth Dulau - Kleya Marki

Over two seasons, Kleya Marki has evolved from mysterious shop assistant at Luthen Rael’s gallery to capable spy and confidante. “Kleya’s arc in Season 2 is enormous,” Dulau says. “After Season 1, you’re left with so many more questions than answers about who Kleya is. It really could go anywhere from that point. It’s such a joy as an actor to be given something so juicy.”

This week, flashback sequences gave viewers an intimate portrait of the pair’s bond, from first meeting on a battlefield to setting off explosives on peaceful Naboo. “It was enormously satisfying to revisit her and to get these answers to who she is,” Dulau continues. “What drives Kleya? Her rebellion is revenge. It’s revenge for her life, the life that she lost when Luthen and his men showed up 17 years ago. It’s revenge for her family.”

In Dulau’s mind, Kleya never forgives Luthen for what she lost, despite their close working relationship. “There are parts of Kleya that hate him, that really hate this man,” she says. “But then…he spends every day after that effectively protecting her. And she protects him and that becomes her life. And I think it’s such a human instinct within all of us to come to love someone in that situation.”

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