Original Star Wars: Andor Plans Go Back to 2018, Mirroring Butch and Sundance

Star Wars: Andor is premiering on Disney+ next month, and the new series will follow Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) before the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which is returning to theatres this weekend. Today, a new clip of the series was released, and the folks involved with the show have been sharing some interesting behind-the-scenes information. During a new interview with Variety, showrunner Tony Gilroy talked about original plans for the series and how they wanted it to mirror some classic films.

"I remember Kathy [Kennedy] saying, 'What can we do?' And I said, 'Well, what kind of stories do you want to do?'" Gilroy explained. "And she goes, 'We could do anything.' So I said, 'Could you do, like, Inherit the Wind?'"

"It was in the vein of Cassian and K-2 are like Butch and Sundance, and they're gonna storm the Citadel," Gilroy added. "But very hard to sustain over a long haul." Gilroy, who co-wrote Rogue One, was originally uninterested in working on the series. However, he wrote "a long forensic manifesto" for Lucasfilm about why the Butch and Sundance idea would not work, and shared his own ideas for the project. "It was such a crazy idea," he explained with a smile. "It was so radical, so out there."

"I wanted to do it about real people," Gilroy explained. "They've made all this IP about the royal family, in essence. It's been great. But there's a billion, billion, billion other beings in the galaxy. There's plumbers and cosmeticians. Journalists! What are their lives like? The revolution is affecting them just as much as anybody else. Why not use the Star Wars canon as a host organism for absolutely realistic, passionate, dramatic storytelling?" 

Now that Andor isn't taking the Butch and Sundance route, the character's trusty droid sidekick is not expected to be featured in the first season. During an interview with Collider last year, K-2SO actor Alan Tudyk spoke out about appearing at Disney's D23 announcement of Andor in 2019 and admitted that he is unlikely to show up in the first season.

"They're shooting it right now, I'm not in it. But, if it stays on the air, stories keep getting told, I'll end up in there," Tudyk explained. "I'm in all these announcements for the show, and I had suggested at D23 when we announced in the show, that it be called K2 Fast K2 Furious: The Cassian Andor Series and, um, that's not happening, it's called Andor!"

Star Wars: Andor premieres on Disney+ on September 21st.  

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