Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy says that the Star Wars series was originally meant to have more seasons.
In an interview with ComicBook, the filmmaker explained why it couldn’t be done, and how a new solution was reached.
“Originally we thought ‘oh, maybe we’ll do five seasons’, but it’s just the scale of the show. I think when the show comes out everybody will forgive us for not doing that. The show is huge and it’s just physically impossible. So then we were like ‘what are we going to do?’ And then the answer turned out to be incredibly elegant and perfect because we knew where we wanted to go. Every now and then you get really lucky and the solution turned out to be really fortunate for us.”
It was announced during Star Wars Celebration that Andor would be getting two seasons, each with 12 installments. While it’s considerably less than the five Gilroy had originally considered, the episode count makes it the longest Star Wars series per season to date with The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Obi-Wan Kenobi all coming in at under 10.
The story finds the future captain for Alliance Intelligence starting off as a more cynical man who won’t have everything figured out just yet, but the encroaching Empire taking over his adopted planet, as well as others throughout the galaxy, will radicalize him into action.
As amazing as more seasons of the series would have been, from the looks of the teaser trailer, Andor will still be be delivering high-quality visuals and meaningful storytelling. Luna has called this a migrant story, emphasizing the major transformation Cassian will go through over the duration.
Andor‘s first season premieres Aug. 31 on Disney Plus, and season 2 will begin filming in Nov. 2022, with the ending of the second season leading directly into the events of Rogue One.