Star Wars: Rogue One prequel series gets new showrunner, cast members
Genevieve O’Reilly (Tolkien) and Olivier Award-winning actress Denise Gough (Angels in America) have been added to the cast of Disney’s untitled Rogue One show, a Star Wars prequel series that will revolve around Rebel spy Cassian Andor (Diego Luna).
Image: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
The show is set to begin filming later this year, assuming Hollywood is back up and running by then after the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down. It’s set to take place five years before the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The character of Cassian Andor served as a pilot and spy for the fledgling Rebellion alongside his reprogrammed Imperial droid K2-S0 (Alan Tudyk). If this show takes place five years before Rogue One, then we will likely get to see how he was recruited by the Rebellion and maybe even how he built up his intricate spy network, known as Fulcrum.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, O’Reilly will reprise her role as senator-turned-Rebel leader Mon Mothma, who first appeared in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. So although Disney’s first live-action Star Wars show, The Mandalorian, didn’t feature any Star Wars legacy characters (at least for now), it sounds like The Cassian Andor Hour (it doesn’t have an official title yet) will lean on them.
There’s no word on who Gough is portraying as of yet. Game of Thrones fans may remember that she was a part of Bloodmoon, a Game of Thrones prequel show that got a pilot episode but nothing else. Stellan Skarsgård (Thor, Dune 2020) and Kyle Soller (Poldark) are also members of the ever-growing cast.
Tony Gilroy — who co-wrote Rogue One the movie– has been tapped to replace Stephen Schiff as showrunner, and will direct the pilot episode. While The Mandalorian had a very smooth rollout, the other live-action Star Wars shows in Disney’s roster have had more troubled productions. Its Obi-Wan Kenobi show has been put on hold for retooling, and now the Cassian Andor show is undergoing staffing changes.
On the other hand, Disney has a history for quality, so it makes sense they want to find the right mix before releasing these shows into the world. Let’s hope the extra time that Cassian Andor and Obi-Wan Kenobi get in the incubator serve them well. And there are other Star Wars shows on the way, too:
Next. A new “female-centric” Star Wars series is coming to Disney+. dark
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