Interview: Discussing the Second Season of ‘Andor’ with Executive Producer/Editor John Gilroy

When Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy was hired to rewrite and reshoot a significant portion of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, it was difficult to gauge the type of reception that a film like this one would get. But, as executive producer/editor John Gilroy explains to Awards Radar on Zoom, the success of Rogue One gave Lucasfilm “confidence for what a TV show might be.” And at the end of Andor’s first season, “we really were proud of what we had done. That gave everybody, all the department heads and the writers, a bigger sense of confidence going into season two. The confidence built in, one thing builds on another, and you hit your stride. I think that’s what we did.”

Building upon Rogue One was important, but, according to Gilroy, “the great thing for us is we didn’t have to worry about an ending. We knew where we wanted to end up, right before Rogue One started. You would think this could tie your hands, but it gives you a lot of latitude, because you don’t have to worry about where you have to be. You know where you will end up by the end of the twelfth episode. For Tony and the rest of the writers, that gave them the opportunity to really swing out. The story gets quite wide, and introduces many new characters, but knowing where you have to end up really helps our storytelling.”

In representing the passage of time as each block of three episodes cuts to a year later, Gilroy explains that “the BBY icon at the beginning of a new block becomes Pavlovian. It reminds people to reset, that a year has gone by. It’s a mechanical thing, but it was really helpful, and, once they started writing, they realized that these jumps were actually quite satisfying. It gave us such an urgency to the back end that I wasn’t expecting that. It really propels the story and trusts the audience to make connections. We’re not spoon feeding people, but there’s enough context there. If you pay attention, you can feel the evolution of each character.”

Of course, there was much to talk about this incredible season of television, including how they approached each bulk of episodes, and some insight that went into editing the three first episodes of the second season, which John Gilroy worked on as an editor. 

You can listen to the full conversation below and stream all episodes of Andor’s second season on Disney+ today: 

[Some of the quotes in this article have been edited for length and clarity]