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‘Andor’: Inside the Making of a Perfect ‘Star Wars’ Episode
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The Force was not part of the story on Andor, the Emmy-nominated Star Wars series that focuses more on the everyday world of Rebel spies and Imperial apparatchiks rather than the mystical realm of the Jedi and Sith. Nonetheless, something magical took over as the narrative moved from script to stage to screen. Showrunner Tony Gilroy discovered that himself when he watched a scene from the final, perfect episode, in which a funeral brick made out of the remains of a deceased Rebel believer becomes a weapon that is literally used to smash the Empire.
“I remember being really surprised when I saw the tape and going, ‘Holy…look what they did!’” Gilroy tells Vanity Fair. (The interview was completed before the ongoing WGA strike that has blocked writers from talking about their work.)
A show like Andor takes on a life of its own when everyone on set is allowed to play with the action figures, he says. “One of the worst things that you ever see is when you watch a director or producer, or whoever’s in charge, be threatened or be insecure about great ideas coming at them from anywhere,” Gilroy says. “That’s just a sign, to me, of amateur hour.”
That openness is a philosophy the writer of the Bourne thrillers has followed ever since directing his first film, 2007’s Michael Clayton, and he credits it with keeping a project fresh and surprising throughout production. “The moment I started being in charge of anything, my whole goal was: If you see something, say something. If you have an idea, raise your hand. It can be abused sometimes if people are annoying about, but literally I’ve taken ideas from the nurse on set.”
More often, this freedom to improvise is something passed along to the creative team. That’s one reason Andor, a nominee for best drama series, has a total of eight Emmy nominations, including nods for writing, visual effects, cinematography, musical score, main title theme, sound editing, and directing. Many of the honors were for the final episode of the show, titled “Rix Road,” the main street on the scrap-filled planet where Diego Luna’s title character lives.
Rix Road becomes the site of funeral procession that explodes into a Rebel uprising against the Empire, roused by a holograph of the late woman herself, Fiona Shaw’s Maarva. The smashing with a brick made from the remains of Cassian Andor’s mother takes place during this sequence, but the entire show is a masterclass in perfect storytelling. Gilroy would say it’s an example of teamwork.
“If you invest everybody on the show with that kind of respect…these people swing and they can go for it,” he says. “Every now and then, people stumble or something’s wrong, yeah, but more often than not I’m pleasantly and shockingly surprised by the choices and the leaps off the page that people make because they feel empowered to do it.”
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Anthony Breznican
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