A frequent criticism of the Star Wars universe’s recent projects often points to the franchise as nothing more than fan service. When it comes to the upcoming Disney+ series Andor, however, the creators are looking to buck that trend.
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Speaking to Variety on the upcoming series, filmmaker Tony Gilroy — who wrote 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and created the upcoming Andor series — said that rather than focus on some of the more well-known characters of the Star Wars world, they wanted Andor to focus more on the lesser-known normal people who might find themselves in that universe.
“I wanted to do it about real people,” Gilroy said. “They’ve made all this IP about the royal family, in essence. It’s been great. But there’s a billion, billion, billion other beings in the galaxy. There’s plumbers and cosmeticians. Journalists! What are their lives like? The revolution is affecting them just as much as anybody else. Why not use the Star Wars canon as a host organism for absolutely realistic, passionate, dramatic storytelling?”
When asked if any legacy characters may pop up in the series, Gilroy kept coy but noted that if they did, it would never be for the purposes of “fan service,” and never to just have them appear for the sake of being in the series.
“Never fan service … It’s never cynical,” said Gilroy. “It’s always meant to be there. It’s always protein; it’s never icing.”
Disney+’s Andor features Diego Luna as he reprises his role of Cassian Andor. Set five years before the events of Rogue One, the series will follow the adventures of the titular hero rebel spy during the formative years of the Rebellion. It will explore tales of espionage and daring missions to restore hope to a galaxy in the grip of a ruthless Empire.
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Andor is executive produced by showrunner Tony Gilroy, who previously directed the reshoots for Rogue One. Gilroy was originally expected to direct three episodes but was forced to give up the position to Black Mirror‘s Toby Haynes due to pandemic-related travel issues.
The 2016 film was a critical and box-office hit with a gross of over $1 billion worldwide. It starred Luna, Felicity Jones, Mads Mikkelsen, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Riz Ahmed, Forest Whitaker, and Ben Mendelsohn.
