Cast and crew of Star Wars: Andor break down the fantastic season finale

Star Wars: Andor wrapped up its first season today, and I, at least, am prepared to now call this the best Star Wars show Disney has yet produced. Granted, it’s very different from its closest competition, The Mandalorian, but man, what a finale.

Showrunner Tony Gilroy broke down some of the key bits talking to Yahoo Entertainment. Let’s start with the final moment, when Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) confronted Rebel spymaster Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) and gave him an ultimatum: either kill me because you fear me spilling Rebel secrets, or bring me into the fold and let me fight the Empire. And after a season where he got an eye, mouth, and earful of just how bad the Empire can be, Cassian was truly ready to turn himself over to the cause.

“There’s no game there. What he says to him is legit. Seriously, recruit me or kill me,” Gilroy said. “Ferrix is gone, his mother’s gone. He’s been through all this stuff, he’s tired. He can’t keep running. It’s the tension of not belonging anywhere. He’s been an exile. And he’s exhausted. And he’s imprisoned and he’s in and he’s out.”

"The need to have a home, the need to have to land is also completely matched by the passion of his anger and the realization of how dark and evil and how great it is to destroy this f–king Empire. He means that he’s all in, we will not be putting his commitment to the cause in debate going forward. He’s still all in the other issues. And many of you know, this season was all about becoming that person, then the other four years are becoming a lot of other things and becoming a leader and surfing your way through all the rest of the revolution."

One of the biggest things that convinced Cassian of the Empire’s implacable evil was his wildly unjust stay in a state-run prison. Although Andor has mostly avoided the easter eggs and cameos that have gotten to be a bit much in other Star Wars shows, it allowed itself a freebee in the post-credits scene, where we learned that the items Cassian and his fellow inmates were making in jail were actually parts of the Death Star, still in construction.

This wasn’t an idea that Gilroy and his writers initially had, but they got there. “We’re like, ‘F–k what are they building? They’re building parts for the Death Star.’ We had that idea.”

"And then we thought, oh how smart we are and how clever and whatever and we gave that idea to the visual effects department. The visual effects department is like Santa Claus, you give them these ideas and you go back to a visual effects review and you just go into like, “Oh my god, can we have that?” They went off and built that whole thing and brought it back to us. And we tweaked it a little bit, but it’s really their baby."

Sometimes it’s easy to roll your eyes when one of those little winking moments happens, but considering how disciplined Andor has been about telling an original story, I’d say they’ve earned this one.

Denise Gough (Dedra) was impressed with Star Wars: Andor

The originality of the story is a big part of what made Andor stand out: no Skywalkers, no lightsabers, very few aliens, just a bunch of space fascists and the people resisting them. Star Denise Gough, who played space fascist Dedra Meero, told The Hollywood Reporter that the show is “only incidentally a Star Wars series.” Whether that’s a good or a bad thing is up to you, but it was different, and that was exciting.

“The language in Andor is very specific and technical,” Gough said. “And on the first day I had some trouble. I had to prepare myself the way I do with pieces that require a more robust, almost muscular, language. I’m thinking, for example, of the scenes with Anton Lesser [who plays Major Partagaz].”

"And that’s why I love this role so much. I feel like I’m working on a play. On TV. I usually have to adapt, but with this Star Wars series I can use all I know and I got from theater. On top of that, thanks to Andor, I can act alongside some of the best theater actors around."

Another way that Andor is different from most Star Wars stories is that the “bad guys” seem a little more ordinary. People like Dedra and Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) may be authoritarians, but we spend enough time with them just going about their days that we may empathize a bit with them anyway.

Gough is happy to be part of a series that’s pushing boundaries like that. “Take a look at my character: she’s a woman who finds herself surrounded by men, men who are often completely useless. But it’s not all a matter of gender. Andor shows a woman who can be corrupt as much as a man and highlights the effect that power may have on anyone.”

"[Dedra is] incredibly ambitious, but that doesn’t mean she wants to be at the top of the Empire. And she wants everything to be done properly. During interrogations, she’s meticulous and careful, something which many of her colleagues are not. In her mind, she’s convinced she must save the Galaxy and therefore sees herself as a heroine. And that’s terrifying, if you think about it. Because she’s ready to do anything to succeed and she isn’t scared to go for a fascist approach. In a way, she’s similar to [Diego Luna’s character] Cassian. But in a completely different way."

Denise Gough on what happened to Bloodmoon, HBO’s cancelled Game of Thrones prequel

Interestingly, before Gough signed on for Andor, she was playing a character in the mysterious Game of Thrones prequel show Bloodmoon. HBO spent millions shooting a pilot for this series, but decided not to go ahead with it.

Gough couldn’t reveal details about the show — we may never know why exactly HBO pulled the plug, curious as we are — but did remember what it was like hearing that it wasn’t going forward. “It was wonderful, without a doubt; I was able to work alongside some incredible people,” she said. “In the end, though, things did not go well. And the point is that this kind of thing happens all the time.”

"At that moment I thought: “Ok, alright; obviously my fate is not to work on that sort of thing.” I wanted to return to theater, to my job. But right then I got a call; they told me: ‘Tony Gilroy wants to meet you.’ Honestly, though, I had no idea who Tony Gilroy was. I only knew we were talking about Star Wars. I Googled him, and only then I understood how serious it was."

Ultimately, the part of Dedra was “closer to those I usually play,” and HBO ended up forward with another Game of Thrones prequel called House of the Dragon, which did quite well. Everybody wins!

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