Star of Andor, Diego Luna, has shared that production resuming on the second and final season of Andor is imminent.
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Yesterday, when on the Emmy’s red carpet, Diego Luna spoke with Variety briefly, and revealed that he was due to fly back to London today, (January 16th, 2024) to resume work on the second season of Andor, which had production shut down in July due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. Luna added that he had just seven days left of filming and seemed excited about the prospect of finally ending Cassian Andor’s story. You can read his quote from Variety below:
“The good thing about ‘Andor’ is that we know it has an ending, and it’s nice to work knowing there’s an ending, and you can aim for something, you know? We’re getting there. I have a few days to shoot because of the strike. I have seven days, so I’m going tomorrow. I’m flying back to London and we’re finishing this, yeah.” – Diego Luna
Diego Luna also spoke with The Hollywood Reporter on the Emmy’s red carpet, telling the outlet the same as he did Variety, that the production is a few days from being completed. He added that he’s hoping the second and final season can be as good, if not better than the first and that due to how close the season runs up to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, many things fans are expecting to happen will occur.
“It’s the finale. It’s second and last season, and we’re a few days away from being done. Because of the strikes we had to stop. I’m going back to shoot now and we’re working hard. Same team, same people, same rigger, and we’re trying to deliver something as good or even better hopefully. It’s getting so close to Rogue One, so many things you’re expecting to happen, will happen.” – Diego Luna
Luna also expressed to THR why he believes critics are such a fan of this Star Wars series, which was up for eight Emmy awards last night, as opposed to the others. Diego shared that he believes it’s due to the writing, with the show focusing on the “intimate life” of characters, their behaviour and the relationships showcased in the series, along with its darker tone.
“I think the tone of the show. You know, the writing on the show is very special. It’s different also, you know? It’s a darker tone. It’s Star Wars from a different angle, where we take care of stuff you don’t see in the other Star Wars [series]. The intimate life of characters, the way they behave, the personal relations. And it’s a spy show, it’s dark, it’s different.” – Diego Luna
The second season of Andor first began filming in November of 2022 at Pinewood Studios, London. The series filmed across various locations in the United Kingdom and even filmed scenes in Malta. However the second season was forced to postpone filming in July last year, shortly after the SAG-AFTRA strike began. Filming on the series continued for at least a week following the start of the strike, as the production attempted to film all that they could without their SAG-AFTRA actors which includes the stars of the series such as Diego Luna and Adria Arjona.
In July, following photos showing that Andor was still filming during the SAG-AFTRA strike, Deadline reported that the scenes being filmed were without the SAG actors and that filming on the second and final season would come to a grinding halt shortly as there were scenes remaining that couldn’t be filmed without the SAG actors. Deadline revealed that Andor would still film without the SAG actors for a very short period of time, but that when the production did pause, there were only just a few weeks away from wrapping production with the SAG actors.
Diego’s comments seem to reflect the Deadline report from the Summer, that Andor season two only had a few weeks left of filming. Luna, the series lead, only has seven days left of filming before the Andor story concludes and that he’ll arrive in London today, ready to start work. Just because Luna arrives in London today, it most certainly does not mean that he’ll begin filming this week, or even that filming itself begins this week. But, filming resuming on the second season is imminent and will likely be all said and done come February.
Some social media users and outlets that didn’t do any research claimed that Andor season two resumed filming in November. This was due to Snowtroopers being spotted at Pinewood Studios, London. However, as I tweeted at the time, this was not for Andor, but for Pinewood’s Future Festival event and completely unrelated to Andor season two.
The second and final season was due to release this year, specifically around August. However, in September, I exclusively reported that the season had been delayed into early 2025 as multiple Star Wars series were delayed due to the impact of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. In December, Andor season two did not appear on a Disney+ 2024 release schedule, and Germain Lussier of Gizmodo added that from what he’d heard, Andor season two had been moved into 2025 – corroborating my report from three months earlier.
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