Of all the potential held within the Star Wars universe, Andor, The Mandalorian (S1 & 2), and Rogue One were the only projects to have come out of the Disney era that seemed willing to try different things. That is probably the reason why they are the best by some distance. Tony Gilroy was involved in two out of three.
Following Kathleen Kennedy’s recent retirement as the head of Lucasfilm, Dave Filoni was appointed as Chief Creative Officer for the studio. He is a well-known life-long Star Wars super geek, well-versed in every aspect of the lore.
Soon after that, The Wrap ran a piece examining Kennedy’s legacy and quoted an unnamed source saying that Filoni, deeply involved in The Mandalorian and Ahsoka, disliked Andor. This would concern most Star Wars fans, as they would be likely to agree that the best way forward for Star Wars is more things like Andor, and fewer things like Ahsoka season 1.
Andor showed the last days of the Galactic Republic and the Empire tightening their grip. It included espionage and propaganda, at times wrapped up in unbearable tension. It was very much Star Wars for grown-ups. Ahsoka, meanwhile, retained many of the issues inherent in Disney Star Wars.
Lucasfilm denied this, and now Gilroy himself has said this is nonsense in a THR interview:
“No. We’ve only met a couple of times, and we’ve only had a half-dozen conversations over the last ten years. Seriously. I saw Jon Favreau at a scoring session once. We’ve always gotten along with those guys, and we’ve never had anything but high praise for everything that they’ve done. We only have our show because of them, and we’ve always said that was true. There’s no Andor without The Mandalorian. It would not exist. So it has never been anything but cordial and pleasant, ever, ever, ever, ever. I don’t know anything that you don’t know. I really don’t.”
Andor was one of the most expensive TV shows ever made, with a preference for location shooting over the virtual studio approach of The Volume. When asked if it will ever be topped, he said:
“Will someone ever spend that kind of money to make something live again [on streaming]? I don’t know if that will ever happen again, but what a great thing it is to be able to have done it.”
Andor has ended, but Ahsoka season 2 will be along shortly.
