Star Wars: Yellowjackets Director Joins Andor Season 2

The first season of Star Wars: Andor debuted this week, and takes place five years before the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The show has already been confirmed to have two seasons with the second season expected to go into production soon. Tony Gilroy, who co-wrote Rogue One, is serving as the series showrunner, but he doesn’t have plans to direct any episodes. Benjamin Caron, Toby Haynes, and Susanna White are all credited for helming episodes in the first season, and it looks like a Yellowjackets alum will be tackling some of the second season. According to Gilroy, 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 for Andor.

“I am not [directing in season two]. I can’t. This job is just too huge. I don’t have the time to spare. It’s a really poor use of my time,” Gilroy explained to The Hollywood Reporter. “Ari [Ariel] Kleiman is out in Pinewood. We start shooting in November. He started prepping three weeks ago. He’s got his hands full out there just to get to November. There was some fantasy that I would end up doing the last block, but I just can’t, to be honest with you.”

He added, “So the directors who’ve come in have all been great, and they’re really ambitious. They’re really greedy. You need an extra retrorocket to go off when it’s time to direct. When someone else comes in and says, ‘Man, I want to make this great. I want to make it better,’ it’s really exciting. So I can say that I’m not directing. I’ll be here [in Pinewood], but I’m not directing.” 

In addition to Luna, Andor stars Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma, Stellan Skarsgård as Luthen Rael, Adria Arjona as Bix Caleen, Denise Gough as Dedra Meero, Kyle Soller as Syril, and Fiona Shaw as Maarva. The show will also see the return of Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera and feature Eedy Karn, Robert Emms, David Hayman, Alex Ferns, Clemens Schick, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. In previous interviews, Gilroy has shared some original ideas for the series and explained why there won’t be any “fan service.” In fact, he teased that viewers don’t need to be fans of Star Wars to enjoy the show. 

The fourth episode of Andor drops on Disney+ on September 28th.