Star Wars: Andor’s Tony Gilroy Reveals Key to Great Action Scenes

The first season of Andor had its powerful season finale earlier this week, and Star Wars fans are eager for the second season, which has already gone into production. Showrunner, Tony Gilroy, who also wrote Rogue One and co-created the Bourne series, is returning for the second and final season and has already teased what fans can expect from the next batch of episodes. Andor had plenty of great action throughout the first 12 episodes, and Gilroy recently talked about creating those moments in an interview with StarWars.com.

“I’ve done action now for a long, long time, and the key to it – there are several keys to it – is to have a very specific place and a very specific set of limitations to work against,” Gilroy explained. “The best action scenes are the ones that have the most character conflict in them… The overarching other part of it is error.”

Gilroy went on to point out a major moment that uses this concept. Throughout the course of three episodes, Cassian is locked up in an Imperial prison on Narkina 5 and ends up leading a revolt when he discovers there are no plans for the prisoners to be released. The prisoners have to climb up and out of the room, which Gilroy described as a difficult task.

“In the prison, for me, the key to that sequence is when the kid jumps up onto the railing and it breaks from his weight,” he explained. “That little bit of reality, that mess up, that error, is the hook for me to get involved.” He continued, “You always have to have a hook. There has to be something different about it. Aldhani has a hook and the funeral has a hook … Every action sequence that we’re doing has a hook to it. It has something special about it.”

Who Is Directing Andor Season 2? 

During another interview with Collider, Gilroy also revealed more directors of Season 2. Previously, he shared that Ariel Kleiman, who helmed the “Flight of the Bumblebee” episode of Yellowjackets as well as episodes of Top of the Lake, The Resort, and more is already lined up to direct some of Andor‘s second season. In addition to Kleiman, Janus Metz and Alonso Ruizpalacios will also be tackling future episodes of Andor. Metz is a Danish filmmaker who has directed some television in addition to All the Old Knives, which starred Chris Pine and Thandiwe Newton. Ruizpalacios is a Mexican filmmaker who previously directed Andor star Diego Luna in Narcos: Mexico. According to the report, the upcoming season will be structured the same way as Season 1 as the three directors “have been tapped to direct episode blocks in the second season.” Kleiman will take on the same role as Toby Haynes in the first season by helming six episodes that are split into two blocks. In addition to Haynes, the first season’s directors also included Susanna White and Benjamin Caron.

Andor‘s first season is streaming on Disney+.