“Andor,” the new “Star Wars” series that serves as a prequel to 2016’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (which itself was a prequel to 1977’s “Star Wars: A New Hope”), debuts this week on Disney+ with a three-episode premiere that perfectly sets you up for the new series. But if you really love “Andor” (and you are going to really love “Andor”), the wait for Season 2 will probably be longer than you’d like.
While talking to showrunner Tony Gilroy about the new show, we brought up that previously Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy had suggested leaning on him potentially as an ambassador for a suite of “Star Wars” films post-“Andor.” Gilroy said that he hadn’t talked to Kennedy about taking on a bigger cinematic project and that “Andor” suggests a deviation in the way he is accustomed to working.
“This is the most home I’ve ever made. I’ve always had a very nimble approach to this,” Gilroy told TheWrap. “I never take a job in front of another job. I’ve always just done one thing at a time and moved around and never made a company or got a letterhead or I never had a production deal or anything. This is the longest I’ve ever spent anywhere.”
When we asked if he would stick around “Star Wars” after “Andor” — which charts the radicalization of Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) in the years leading up to the events of “Rogue One” and is crafted as a close-ended, two-season story — or if this is his final work in the universe, he said the latter was probably true.
“As suspect as my involvement in the community is, by the time I’m done, I’ll have had my hands on 26 hours of ‘Star Wars’ content. I will be a player by the time we finish. This is me sticking around right now. I think that’s the headline.”
Gilroy said that his work on “Andor” is really sticking around considering they still have to produce and release “Andor” Season 2. “I have two more years to go,” Gilroy said. “We start shooting in November on Part 2. And I don’t know if … Our past pattern was two years, but I mean, I’ll be on … We’ll shoot from November to August. And then our post[-production] last time was about a year.”
That probably means, at the earliest, we can expect “Andor” Season 2 (or part two, as Gilroy calls it) in fall 2024. But if the first batch is any indication, it’ll be worth the wait.
It’s worth noting that Disney has not announced a release schedule for “Andor” Season 2 and a 2023 release date isn’t entirely out of the question, but by Gilroy’s estimation, he’ll be spending quite a bit more time in this specific corner of the “Star Wars” universe before the world sees it.
