Disney has long had a cost problem. The idea of seeking value for money seems alien to them. A studio full of people who can’t say “No” to a quote and have never found an invoice they would fail to challenge? Hundreds of millions go on things like CGI Lions and live-action adaptions of IP they already own. So what else have they been spending money on? Andor, it seems.
Andor remains so far the best thing that has been put out by Lucasfilm with the Star Wars badge on it since the Disney acquisition.
Its patient storytelling and grown-up approach to examining how rebellions are born is exactly what they should have been doing with expanded Star Wars.
Instead, they gave us The Acolyte.
Still, all this location shooting and longer runs doesn’t come cheap. An article in Forbes has claimed that season 2 of Andor cost $290.9 million to make. That means both seasons combined will come in at $645 million.
For context, that will be 24 episodes on average of 45 minutes each. The previous most expensive Star Wars project was The Last Jedi at $280.7 million.
How does Forbes know this? Andor was filmed in the UK where, to qualify for the tax credits, they need to make detailed filings of costs in order to qualify. Those tax credits were worth $129.3 million back to the production.
Remember, big cost mean lower profits and therefore less paid out in monkey points. It’s almost as if… no, that’s just too silly.