Maxance Vincent
The second season of Andor is some of the best Star Wars you’ll ever see, not only in its impeccable writing and themes that it touches upon, but on the level of craftsmanship that’s showcased on every level, from its trio of accomplished directors, to the note-perfect production design, cinematography and visual effects and, of course, its costume work from Michael Wilkinson, who also created the designs for the first season.
When reflecting on the second and final season, Wilkinson who spoke to Awards Radar, explained that the designs had to be taken much further than what was established in the first season:
“We really tried to push the boat out with this one, as it was our final season. This is our last chance to have that take on Andor and that whole world. We put a lot of work into it. It was like a year’s work. We had four months of prep and an eight-month shoot, which is completely massive. I had an incredible crew. I had about ninety full-time costumers working with me to create these costumes. I have to say, it was a phenomenal group of people. The collective sum of all of their talents was quite astonishing, and made me feel like I could achieve anything with these costumes. We were super engaged in the story and wanted to do it as much justice as possible. All these characters are so important to so many people out there. We wanted to take responsibility for telling their story in a compelling and surprising way.”
The approach for this season was the same as the first, meaning that the show was treated as a drama, first and foremost:
“It’s not your classic, crazy sci-fi, stylized fantasy world. Tony Gilroy writes these characters as human beings who are complex and flawed. So I wanted their costumes to be complex and layered as well. Everything had to have a reason. It wasn’t ornamental or because it looked cool, or Star Wars-ey. These were real people, so I put a lot of thinking into their clothes and making them resonate as human beings to our audience.”
In representing the passage of time for each character, as the series cuts to a year later with every block of three episodes, Wilkinson explained that it was always important for him “to show a character arc. With these wonderful, long 12-episode series, you get a great opportunity to do that. Even more so in Andor – Season 2, because we’re covering these five years that lead up to Rogue One. All of the characters finish off in a different place from where they started in episode one. You can see that in Cassian. He becomes more and more the hero that we know in Rogue One.
At the beginning of season one, he’s trying to work out who he is. He’s undisciplined, as a rebel alliance figure. Through season two, he is getting his act together. He’s working out how to be effective within the Alliance, until the very end, where you see him in his Rogue One costume, striding out onto the tarmac and about to go on this incredible mission. So that’s one example of a character arc, but everyone really had these arcs. Luthen, Kleya, Mon Mothma, of course. Yeah. It was a wonderful thing to chat very carefully about all of these developments and the costumes of all of the characters.”
Of course, there were many things to talk about when dissecting the costumes of the second season, including Cassian’s Ghorman looks, as Varian Skye and Ronni Googe, crafting the world of Ghorman and developing its culture through the costumes, showcasing Imperial characters in their domestic lives, and tracking the arcs of Luthen Rael and Mon Mothma, among others.
Listen to the full conversation below:
[Some of the quotes in this article have been edited for length and clarity]
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