Andor Showrunner Reveals the Season 2 Moment He “Hated” (But Fans Loved It)

A fan-favorite moment in Season 2 of Andor ended up being the one showrunner Tony Gilroy disliked the most. Andor is back on Disney+ for its final season, inching Star Wars fans closer and closer to the events in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. While Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor is the titular lead of the show, there have been several breakout characters that fans have latched on to. Two of those are Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) and Dedra Meero (Denise Gough). The relationship between the Imperial duo has been simmering since Season 1, but things have certainly progressed by the time we catch up with them in Season 2.

The second episode of Andor Season 2 catches up with Syril and Dedra a year later, and we discover they’re living together on Coruscant as a couple. Showrunner Tony Gilroy explained to Entertainment Weekly why he put them together, asking the question, “Don’t you want to see them together?” A curveball that is thrown into the equation is when Syril’s mother, Eedy (Kathryn Hunter), comes over for dinner. It’s a very awkward scene, with Eedy belittling and berating her son to the point where Syril excuses himself from the dinner table.

Dedra steps up and confronts Eedy, using her Imperial training to negotiate a peace treaty. “This game ends now. You want Syril in your life, you will think before you speak,” Dedra tells Eedy. “I’ll make sure he visits twice a month. I’ll make sure that he calls you. I will guarantee a level of engagement, but it will be inversely proportional to the volume of anxiety you generate in our lives.”

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Next, we see the shot that Tony Gilroy revealed he wasn’t the biggest fan of. Syril is in his room, lying on the bed, despondent and defeated, before returning to dinner. “I remember watching the dailies come in on that,” he said. “I hated him lying on the bed. I was like, ‘Oh man, what are you doing?’”

Gilroy ended up putting his trust in director Ariel Kleiman that he would make the shot work. “Ariel was really adamant about it, and I was on the fence about it,” Gilroy said. “I thought, ‘Oh, it’s too much, it’s too much, it’s too much.’ But we went to cut it and the things he added — like the adjustment of the fork on the table — he made this really just incredible confection there. That’s really all him, that’s all his blocking.”

Composer Brandon Roberts is also praised, with his music helping to add some weight to the moment. Roberts was brought on to score the second season of Andor. “The cherry on it was the cue that he put on there,” says Gilroy. “That sort of sixties Mary Tyler Moore TV cue. It was like, ‘Man, this, just comes alive!’ Everybody had a lot of fun with that.”

What makes the Syril/Dedra relationship even more fascinating is how Denise Gough, who plays Dedra, was one of the people against the pairing.

“Denise said to me during the first season, ‘Oh my God, do not put them together,’” Gilroy revealed. “‘Do not do that. That’s the one thing I’m asking you.’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t think I’m going to answer that.’”

Gilroy added, “She was worried that with so many characters, when they get a romance, all of a sudden everything dies and it becomes about that. That was never my fear. It was inevitable to me that this was really interesting. I’m fascinated by them.”

He then gave his thoughts on what makes Syril and Dedra unique and different. “How they get there is so radically different. I view Syril as a fantasist. I think his inner life, his imagination is just running wild,” Gilroy said. “It’s very loud in his head all the time. I think it’s very quiet for Dedra. She’s very much focused on the task at hand, and whatever imagination she has is put towards crushing the rebellion.”

Season 2 of Andor is now streaming on Disney+. Let us know your thoughts on the Syril/Dedra dinner scene in the comments below!