Star Wars: Andor Star Details What Drew Him to the Project

With Star Wars being a pop-culture juggernaut for more than 40 years, many performers and filmmakers would do anything they could to get involved in the series, with actor Stellan Skarsgård recently admitting that the main reason he joined Star Wars: Andor was for the opportunity to work with showrunner Tony Gilroy more than for the opportunity to get involved in the galaxy far, far away. The actor also noted how much more Rogue One: A Star Wars Story resonated with him than any other installments in the series, which he largely dismissed as being nothing more than a series of plastic-covered figures falling over.

“When I saw Rogue One, it had much more atmosphere and seemed a little more mature — and that was Tony Gilroy, who’s the showrunner on this one,” Skarsgård revealed to The Daily Beast. “So, hopefully this one will be a little more than little plastic people falling over.”

Despite excitement from Skarsgård and fans that Gilroy would not only serve as showrunner but also direct installments in Andor, various travel complications due to the coronavirus pandemic resulted in the filmmaker having to hand over directorial duties to Doctor Who and Black Mirror director Toby Haynes. Between the Rogue One reshoots, Solo: A Star Wars Story changing hands creatively during production, and J.J. Abrams taking over Star Wars: Episode IX from Colin Trevorrow, news of directorial duties changing hands immediately caused speculation about the state of the series, only for it to be confirmed it was merely a practical decision as opposed to a creative one.

Rogue One marked an ambitious effort for Lucasfilm, as it was the first feature film that didn’t focus on the Skywalker family, only for the film to be well received critically and financially. While the film was directed by Gareth Edwards, Gilroy reportedly oversaw reshoots, which some rumors claim drastically altered the adventure’s trajectory.

Regardless of any changes the film went through, Rogue One star Alan Tudyk previously detailed the film wouldn’t have been as effective as it was without Edwards.

“K-2SO would not be K-2SO, the K2 that ended up in the movie, without Gareth, and without the decisions that Gareth made,” Tudyk previously shared with Collider. “All of the stuff, like lines that I said, where I was goofing around half the time because Gareth made it so much fun on set. That was so easygoing and so proactive, such a proactive director. Things that like, we get caught, I’m pretending that Cassian was a prisoner and saying [after] I hit him, ‘Silence! And there’s a fresh one if you mouth off again.’ That stuff would not have made it in, that was just goofing around. And that was Gareth. He let us goof around, and that ended up becoming a tone of the character throughout the movie and ended up in the movie finally.”

Star Wars: Andor is currently filming and does not yet have a release date.

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