Hello there! Before we continue I kindly ask you to consider showing your support and appreciation for my work by tipping me via my Ko-Fi page. Tips are quite rare around these parts, but I assure you no matter how big or small, each tip is deeply appreciated.
The second and final season of the critically acclaimed live-action Star Wars TV series, Andor, a prequel series to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, is currently in the midst of filming. The season began filming back in November at Pinewood Studios, London, and has ventured across various parts of the United Kingdom for the production, and even ventured to Valencia, Spain recently. The season is currently scheduled to wrap production in August, with the season aiming to release in August of 2023.
Industry wide, various films and series have halted production due to the Writers Guild of America currently striking, with most of those productions that have been halted left without an idea on when production will resume. Some have wondered if the strike has impacted the two Star Wars series that are currently in production, Andor and The Acolyte. Gilroy has revealed that he turned in the final draft of the Andor season two finale three days before the writers strike began and that Andor will not be impacted. There’s been no update on The Acolyte, but chances are it too will not be impacted, with principal photography on the series scheduled to wrap this month as revealed the series creator, director and showrunner, Leslye Headland at Star Wars Celebration last month.
Empire Magazine are currently sharing various tidbits from their next issue which features conversations with various Star Wars creatives such as the Lucasfilm president, Kathleen Kennedy, The Mandalorian and Ahsoka executive producers, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, and Andor showrunner, Tony Gilroy, plus a handful of stars from the various series. In a newly recent tidbit from the magazine, Gilroy discussed the second season of Andor, reiterating a that each block of three episodes in the season – of which there are twelve episodes – will cover one year and will lead up until the events of Rogue One, placing our hero, Cassian Andor, just mere moments before the start of that film. Gilroy has said this various times since last year, but in the excerpt from Empire, he adds that the final three episodes of the season will cover, “the last three days before Rogue One”.
Gilroy went on to share that with his scripts for season two, he’s taking risks and isn’t pulling any punches, adding that he doesn’t want to take his foot off of the gas and that the material in which he’s created for the Star Wars series is dynamic. Gilroy said the following:
“The risks this season will take are very different, In every way. Look, man, I’m not trying to make a career here; if anything I’m on the downhill side of a long career. But this is an opportunity. This is 1,500 pages of the most dynamic material in these people’s lives to deal with. We got it right the first time, and you don’t want to let your foot off the gas.”
The Andor showrunner didn’t share much else in the newly released excerpt from Empire, perhaps there’ll be much more from the creator once the issue is officially released, but he did add that we’ll Denise Gough’s Dedra Meero go, “Full Dedra”, and that die hard revolutionaries such as Stellan Skarsgård’s Luthen Rael will face growing pains of the Rebellion, with Gilroy saying, “Some of its core ingredients are secrecy and paranoia and lack of trust and betrayal. So, how difficult is it to build a revolution? And what happens to the original gangsters, as other people get involved?”
The second season of Andor is set to be released in August of next year, and the latest issue of Empire will release on May 11th.