One rumour that has constantly surrounded Dave Filoni, the new co-president of Lucasfilm, in recent times is that he was not a fan of the critically acclaimed Disney+ Star Wars series, Andor. Tony Gilroy, the creator and showrunner behind the award winning Rogue One prequel series has now spoken on those rumours in a recent interview.
When speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Gilroy was asked if he had any creative or philosophical disagreements with Dave Filoni and was told of past reports that Filoni was not a fan of what Gilroy had created with Andor.
The Andor showrunner responded telling the outlet simply “no” before heaping praise on both Filoni and Jon Favreau, the creator of The Mandalorian, and sharing that he’s likely only had half a dozen conversations with Dave Filoni, but that they’ve always gotten along.
“No. We’ve only met a couple times, and we’ve only had a half-a-dozen conversations over the last ten years. Seriously. I saw Jon Favreau at a scoring session once. We’ve always gotten along with those guys, and we’ve never had anything but high praise for everything that they’ve done. We only have our show because of them, and we’ve always said that was true. There’s no Andor without The Mandalorian. It would not exist. So it has never been anything but cordial and pleasant ever, ever, ever, ever. I don’t know anything that you don’t know. I really don’t.” – Tony Gilroy
Speaking Freely
The THR interview with Gilroy was decorated as the interview he could not give when he was in the throws of Star Wars and promoting Andor, but now that chapter is over for the filmmaker, he can talk more freely about the things he was asked not to.
During the interview he reveals that he was told by Lucasfilm and Disney that he could not use the words ‘fascism’ and ‘genocide’ when promoting the series and compared events from his Star Wars series to the current happenings in the United States of America.
Looking Forward
During the interview, Gilroy also spoke of the upcoming Art of Andor book that’s due to release in June. He revealed that he wrote a foreword for it and shared that he found the upcoming release ‘incredibly nostalgic’ and ‘overwhelming’.
He added that every page of the Art of Andor features ideas that had been talked about in every meeting during the course of the series creation and development and that it’s “just so good.” So if you’re a fan of Andor, it might just be worth picking up.
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