Diego Luna “very proud” people are enjoying Star Wars: Andor

When I first heard that Disney was going to make a Star Wars TV show about Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), a the lead characters from the one-off film Rogue One, I was skeptical. Of all the characters in the galaxy, you pick this guy? It’s not that I didn’t like Cassian Andor, more that I didn’t think about him at all. Star Wars has introduced us to a lot of memorable characters over the years; surely one of them was more deserving of their own series?

Well, now that the first season of Star Wars: Andor has wrapped on Disney+, I’m happy to eat my words; this is the best Star Wars show since The Mandalorian at least, and it may be better. Although I wasn’t the only one who thought it was a weird idea initially; even Luna himself had his doubts.

“I had the same reaction when I was offered Cassian for Rogue One. I was like, ‘What? What do you mean? Really, me for this? What makes you think I’ll be good in this show?’ So I think I understand,” he told Collider. “And to be honest, I think it took a little pressure off our shoulders to come out of nowhere. My reaction, or this journey, since the series came out, I think it was very important for people, for audiences to be able to watch the first three episodes in one because it gave you the feeling of what we were trying to achieve and the range of what the show was going to offer.”

"You know what’s beautiful? That when I hear people talking about the show in social media, when I read the reviews, I hear a lot of the words that we were reminding ourselves every day on set. The darkness, the complexity, the depth, the intimacy, the realism. I think that’s one thing [creator Tony Gilroy] and we were all trying to remind ourselves, this has to feel real, this has to feel real. It has to give you the opportunity to forget that you are in a galaxy far, far away for a second. It has to feel that you are witnessing an intimate, realistic moment of someone close to your community, that you are spying on your neighbors kind of thing."

I think it’s safe to say that fans have embraced the series, not because it has the Star Wars name attached, but because it’s so effectively carved out a place for itself within that universe. “And hearing that as the series comes out, and hearing that audiences are celebrating that, makes me feel very proud because it’s not just that the series is being celebrated, but it’s being celebrated for the same reasons I was part of this show,” Luna said.

"I was excited to be part of this show. People are celebrating what I celebrated when I spoke for the first time to Tony. They’re celebrating the stuff we were aiming for, and that’s very important because there was always the opportunity to not commit completely. And we did commit, and there was a big risk, and it paid off. I think it paid off that we really pursued what we thought at the beginning could make this show different and unique and therefore special."

How Cassian Andor goes from a selfish scoundrel to a dedicated rebel

With a show this good, there’s plenty of reason to be excited. For instance, the season finale is a thrilling hour of TV that finally sees Cassian give himself completely to the rebel cause, instead of just trying to help himself. That transformation began with his wildly unjust stay in an Imperial prison, where he and his fellow inmates were abused according to the Empire’s callous design.

“The prison is about, he realizes how fucked up things are in this galaxy,” Luna said. “He realizes how little the life of people means to the Empire. What you are to the Empire is a fucking white suit, a number, and you just mean something if you produce. Just a number. You’re a white suit. There’s no personality there. He realizes that prison is just a metaphor of the life out there. You don’t have to be in that prison to be living in a prison. I think that jump, that running out, that one-way-out sequence is definitely the first time he is running away with a purpose, because he keeps running away in this show. He’s always running away. He starts running away. But that’s a moment where he knows why he’s running away, and that something has to be done. That he can’t call that life.”

"But I think Maarva, in a personal way, is what ends up setting him up. It’s the wake-up call, and it arrives too late. He just realizes he always had it there. That the mentor, that the referent, the example, it was there, it was at home, it was sitting there in that chair. That the words she was saying were true. That’s why I was saying that Rogue One will feel different after watching episode 12 because you remember Maarva with every word Cassian says, and every action he does."

Maarva is Cassian’s adopted mother, who finds purpose late in life in devoting herself to the rebel cause. The prison may have woken Cassian up to the extent of the injustice fomented by the Empire, but it’s Maarva’s death — and her prerecorded speech at her funeral — that really lights a fire in him.

“I think the prison is, in terms of [what] he understands, what they’re fighting against,” Luna said. “He understands what the machine, what the structure, what the monster is, the beast that they have to fight. He understands what he’s against. But in a professional level, it’s that he finds the strength. And I think he finds the strength in Maarva’s words, in Maarva’s example, in Maarva’s actions, because after he receives the news in the call, I think he revisits his whole life. He goes back to the moment he was picked by Maarva, and he goes through his life and he finds that the message has been always there.”

Maarva “sets Cassian on that ride that will end in Rogue One“

Watching Cassian transform like this was very emotional…perhaps too emotional, as Luna tells it. “Well, I was walking underneath Ferrix, getting to Ferrix, and the director started playing the words of Maarva. And so I was listening to the music in a moment, and then the words,” he said. “I’m walking underneath Ferrix, and I’m hearing the music, and I just started crying, man. And I didn’t want the character to cry there. It was like, ‘Shit, no, this can’t be happening.’ I got so emotional. So emotional. And it means a lot to me, man, on a personal level, that relation of Cassian and Maarva, and the way she ends up setting him in the right direction. I think it’s such a strong, strong piece of Cassian’s story, and I get emotional just by talking about it.”

"It is, for me, the strongest relation, and it’s clearly Maarva’s example [that] sets him in that ride that will end in Rogue One. It was really tough to keep my emotions. To keep it strong because I didn’t want him to break there. It had to be later on. I didn’t want it to break there. And it was impossible. The first take, it was impossible. The second, probably, I started behaving better, and I was more in control. But all of that sequence is just so strong. And he’s underneath the place where he was able to have a life just before he fucked everything up, basically.It’s incredible. I’m just going to say that every time I talk about the series, it’s incredible how nothing is [taken] for granted in our show. And the work of Tony and all the writers, it’s so perfect. Everything pays off. Everything, everything. And as an actor, it’s just so amazing to be able to work with that material because everything has a connection. It was very strong, I mean, I love many episodes of the show, but nothing like 12. 12 is very strong for me. Yeah."

If I didn’t already like the show, I think I would have no choice after seeing how much Luna loves it.

The first 12 episodes of Star Wars: Andor are streaming now on Disney+. They’re working on the next 12 now, although we probably won’t see them until 2024.

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