Star Wars’ Latest Recasting Is Proof That the Franchise Needs to Make a Key Change

Star Wars: Andor Season 2 recasts a long-existing character in the franchise, and more Star Wars projects need to do the same when necessary. In Episode 6, “What a Festive Evening,” actor Benjamin Bratt plays Senator Bail Organa, replacing actor Jimmy Smits — who had previously portrayed the character in 2002’s Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, 2005’s Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and the 2022 Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi. Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy confirmed that the recasting resulted from scheduling issues with Smits, with Bratt stepping in to fill the absence. Now, Star Wars is no stranger to casting multiple actors in the same role; Ewan McGregor famously took over for Alec Guinness as a younger Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Alden Ehrenreich portrayed young Han Solo.

Interestingly, Andor‘s recasting of Bail Organa comes as an aberration from Star Wars‘ more recent trend of filling the roles of unavailable or deceased actors. For instance, a CGI recreation of Mark Hamill’s original Trilogy-era Luke appeared in The Mandalorian in 2020 and The Book of Boba Fett in 2022. Similarly, digitally rendered versions of Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia and Peter Cushing’s Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin were used in Rogue One. Star Wars’ hesitance to recast roles and trend of choosing CGI over real actors have become major lightning rods for fans in the last decade, but Andor hopefully signals that this is going to change, going forward.

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Star Wars: Andor‘s Recasting of Bail Organa Corrects One of the Franchise’s Biggest Problems

Numerous problems are created when using CGI to construct an actor’s likeness for a role they can no longer play. First of all, each time Star Wars has taken this approach, the character looks incredibly strange. Technology has come a long way since the early days of Star Wars, however, the CGI Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian hardly compares to the human actors he shares the screen with in Season 2’s final scene. Improvements to his appearance in The Book of Boba Fett still don’t make him look real, while his digitally-manufactured voice just sounds like a creepier, more robotic fabrication of Hamill. Leia and Tarkin shared the same issues in Rogue One years earlier; these ghoulish, digital renditions of characters distract from the story, as they struggle to blend in with the living, breathing performers next to them. In the case of deceased actors, such as Fisher and Cushing, one must also question the ethics of using their likenesses without proper (even if it’s technically legal) consent.

It’s frustrating to see an individual on screen who, on a surface level, looks and sounds like the actor and character they attempt to emulate, but whose soullessness and noticeable artificial qualities completely drain any elation at seeing an old character portrayal brought back to life. Star Wars‘ decision to recast Bail Organa in Andor Season 2 instead of creating a CGI copy of Smits feels like a course-correcting move. It appears that the franchise has finally listened to the audience’s criticism of the CGI recreations and could be looking to recast characters in the future.

Moving Forward, Star Wars Should Always Recast Characters Instead of Using CGI

Following Andor‘s recasting of Bail Organa, Star Wars: Ahsoka Season 2 will introduce Rory McCann in the role of Baylan Skoll following the death of Ray Stevenson. These recastings bring reason for optimism concerning the future of Star Wars, as, at least for now, the franchise seems to have diverged from its CGI resurrections. The most positive impact of recastings as opposed to digital recreations of characters involves giving actors, especially lesser-known performers, a chance to shine on a big stage. From Hayden Christensen to Daisy Ridley, Star Wars has routinely skyrocketed actors to stardom, and the same could be done with recastings of long-standing characters.

Even though a new actor’s likeness and voice won’t stack up to the original version, it’s far better to place a real human in front of the camera instead of generating most of the performance in the post-production stage. The majority of Star Wars fans would prefer Fisher’s daughter Billie Lourd to play Princess Leia instead of a CGI rendering of Fisher’s likeness and voice. Or, the longstanding fancast of Sebastian Stan as Luke Skywalker would be a lot more interesting than the strange-looking CGI Luke in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett.

After Andor Season 2’s introduction of Bratt as the successor to Smits as Bail Organa, Star Wars is heading in the right direction by opting for new actors instead of CGI versions of old ones. This needs to become the franchise’s default method for handling potential recasting from now on, as both working actors and Star Wars fans will benefit from the approach. With hope, no one will have to lay eyes on an unsettling CGI character in a Star Wars project again.

New episodes of Star Wars: Andor release weekly on Tuesdays on Disney+.