Diego Luna, Tony Gilroy Talk Andor

Television

Before the Andor finale aired this Wednesday, Collider sat down with showrunner Tony Gilroy and star Diego Luna to discuss it and Cassian Andor’s character. First off, check out some insight from Gilroy about when he wrote the final scene between Cassian and Luthen:

“Early, early. Probably when I was still in the sketching phase. I was trying to fill out the whole jigsaw puzzle. What do you do first in jigsaw puzzle? I’m not a jigsaw puzzle expert, but I think what you usually do is they usually start with the edges, right? The edge, get a frame. So, probably along the way, while I’m sketching all different things, and here’s a scene for who knows where this goes, and here’s another scene for another episode and landmark scenes all the way through and different things. But at a certain point, I’m looking for that and at a certain point I’m wasting my time if I don’t know what that is. I have to know where I’m going. Otherwise, you’re wasting time.”

Then, Luna had this to say about Cassian’s monologue, begging Luthen to take him on:

“I think if you could read his mind, at the end what he’s saying is, ‘This is no life. Take this thing I have away from me because it means nothing unless you let me fight for freedom.’ He’s saying, ‘There’s no point of living like this.’ He finally gets it.”

“There’s a lot of learning to come to find the Cassian we see in Rogue One, and the commitment, the clarity, the belief that he has there. But here, what he’s saying is like, ‘Yeah, take this away from me because it means nothing unless I’m part of what you guys are fighting for.’ And I think it’s that, it’s very deep, and it’s the moment he finds out he can be different [from] what everyone sees in him and what he sees, and what he thought he was. That there is a chance to transform, to evolve, and to become part of a solution.”

I don’t have much to say about Tony Gilroy’s comments here. He says the scene came about very early in the writing process, and I feel he could have left it at that; most of his comment after that is fluff. It’s a superb scene in terms of performance and dialogue, and a highlight of the finale, so it’s easy to see why it stuck for so long. 

Diego Luna’s passion for his character is delightful to behold. I think we can all agree that Cassian only finally decided to do the right thing out of desperation and hatred for the Empire. I just can’t wait to see how season 2 plays out; this show was my favorite Star Wars since Clone Wars season 7 or Mando season 2.