Earlier today, Andor A Star Wars Story series creator, screenwriter, and executive producer Tony Gilroy joined starring actor and executive producer Diego Luna (Cassian Andor) for a live discussion about the revelations – with still more to come! – of the series’ second and final season. Moderated by Ash Crossan, the stream included a number of surprise guests, and is now available to watch on the Star Wars YouTube channel.
Here are six insights we gathered from this emotionally-charged discussion about Andor Season 2.
Spoiler Warning: This article discusses story details and plot points from Andor Season 2, Episodes 1-9.
1. Mon Mothma’s speech was like a piece of music.
Mon Mothma herself, Genevieve O’Reilly, was the first special guest to join Gilroy and Luna. She had plenty to say about her character’s climactic speech before the Imperial Senate in Episode 9, “Welcome to the Rebellion.”
“I think what I can really talk to there is just that idea of a piece of music, and the orchestra it takes,” O’Reilly said. “When you look at that piece, you see so many storylines, so much of what [screenwriter] Dan [Gilroy] and Tony wove together to create that crescendo. So many instruments. So much story, so much life. Each of those little vignettes all around that speech. It just serves to lift the moment. It is a beautiful kind of narrative architecture there, and it’s really special to be a part of it.”
O’Reilly noted that she was nervous on the day of filming, but found reassurance in the fact that she would be delivering it to Andor’s crew. “There’s this little tiny moment…where I touched that little medallion she wore,” O’Reilly added. “And [costume designer] Michael Wilkinson created that. That’s like a new version for Andor that he had created for Mon, but really the character had had that all the way through, the different versions of that emblem. I do remember touching that and rooting it to her.”
2. Deedra Meero was always an Imperial to the core.
Cast member Denise Gough arrived next to explain what she described as her “steady” approach to the deep motivations of Dedra Meero. “I knew from the beginning that she was an Imperial through and through. I loved holding in my body what it’s like for her to have a relationship [with Syril Karn]. That was really extraordinary because she was still really Dedra Meero. It’s not like there were suddenly scenes where they were having a really nice time together and gazing into each other’s eyes. It was always sort of odd and strange, and what happens to her as she tries to navigate that.”
Gough added with a smile that her fellow actor Kyler Soller “can do monologues with his eyeballs,” and the pair of them enjoyed playing rather intense moments of unspoken connection.
The fact that audience members find themselves having empathy for characters like Dedra and Syril was intentional on Gilroy’s part. “Fascism doesn’t just take down the oppressed,” he explained. “It doesn’t just take down the people it’s trying to control. It inevitably destroys the people who’ve worked the hardest to build it. That’s been true all through history as well. It would be not only irresponsible, it would just be a missed opportunity, to not feel everything through every character. The intention is to climb into everybody’s skin no matter how much you hate them or how opaque they might seem to you, that you feel something when they go through something.”
3. There were potential alternatives to Cassian’s line, “Who are you?”
For Gilroy, the title of Episode 8 just had to be “Who Are You?” But alternates were discussed by the production team in case this somewhat ambiguous piece of dialogue was deemed too enigmatic. Gilroy, however, insisted to Luna before the shoot in the Ghorman plaza that his chosen line would be the one. “That line was very difficult to say,” Luna noted. “It happens a lot in this show where you have to put aside instant feelings that you end up going for because we know the ending and we did the first season...”
For Syril actor Kyle Soller, the line was “the death blow for Syril. The guy who he’s been funneling all of this energy towards…doesn’t even know he exists,” as Soller explained. “Brutal. Syril lowers the blaster. He can’t pull the trigger. It’s soul-crushing for him in that moment.”
Soller added, “It felt so fitting for Syril to have that end, for the life that he thought he was living to come crashing down around him, and for him to meet what he thinks is kind of the reason for his life, for the things that he’s lost, and for his anger and frustration, to kind of meet Cassian again at the very end.”
4. Elizabeth Dulau learned how to build a radio to play Kleya.
Andor Season 2 sports a new array of communications equipment for Kleya Marki (Elizabeth Dulau) and Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) to make use of in the room behind their antiquities gallery. Dulau enjoyed familiarizing herself with the new prop designs on set, and even learned the basics of how to build a radio in our own galaxy. “I learned about all the different components that go into building a radio,” Dulau said. “I got this kids’ DIY radio kit and made my own little at-home radio. It’s nothing like, obviously, what Kleya has achieved… but I nailed it [laughs].”
Adding that she loved the various headdresses and Indiana Jones Easter eggs hidden amongst the artifacts in Luthen’s gallery, Dulau was also keen to point out that Kleya is a more complex character than might be evident at first.
“I think there’s a lot to her that she keeps deeply hidden, actually,” she said. “On the surface she comes across as very controlled all the time and quite cold. But I think that’s because actually there’s a lot underneath all of that that she’s sort of had to keep hidden. She’s all about doing anything that needs to be done for the Rebellion, and I think that includes trying to repress any feelings of love or friendship or caring because ultimately she feels that that makes her weaker in a way. But they’re the parts of her that I love most.”
5. Adria Arjona watched Bix’s farewell for the first time.
When Bix Caleen actor Adria Arjona joined the discussion, they soon rolled the fateful scene in Episode 9 when Bix leaves her farewell message for Cassian. Arjona quickly admitted that she’d yet to watch the moment in its final form. Calling Bix’s act “the ultimate sacrifice of love,” Arjona was visibly moved by the experience.
“I was so nervous filming it,” the actor recalled. “It was not something I took lightly, I think. Sending that message and sending one of your favorite characters into this journey. I didn’t take it lightly, so I’ve been kind of nervous to watch… It’s pretty emotional, but I feel good about it.”
Gilory added that moments like this are “all you ever want [as a writer]. You spend your life in a room when you’re a writer. All you want to do is grab, connect… I think I learned a lot on Rogue [One] about being more emotionally direct because that movie had to be so emotionally direct. And I think that anything that I was shading before in my writing or being afraid about, it was like, wow… just really let it go and it can pay off. I think [Andor] was the graduate seminar on that idea, and it’s a pretty good feeling to make people cry.”
6. For Cassian, it’s about love.
Having played Cassian Andor on screen for a decade, Luna was keen to explain just how profound of a journey the character takes in the lead-up to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. “He doesn’t think he’s capable of doing much without the help of others. He understands the need for others… He’s always surprised by himself, and therefore always open to learn and to grow and to work in teams.
“One other thing that I think he learns in this second season is how important it is to have love as the main driving force,” Luna said. “He’s questioning everything because he’s feeling. I love that transition that he has in the second season. Now we’ve seen the whole story with Bix and we understand what he’s dreaming of now… He’s finally fighting for the right reasons, you know. It’s not revenge. It’s not anger. That’s there, but there’s something [else] pumping there.”
