Lucasfilm is currently in production of the second and final season of “Andor”. Though the first season was soft in terms of ratings when initially released, it scored much critical acclaim and, to quite a few, is considered the best “Star Wars” effort of the Disney era to date.
A lot of that ties back to show creator and showrunner Tony Gilroy, who crafted a two-season plan to tell a story that avoids many “Star Wars” tropes – callbacks and fantasy elements are minimised in favor of moral relativism and a harder sci-fi/political approach.
It seemed like a show more akin to “Battlestar Galactica” and “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” than “Obi-Wan Kenobi” or “The Mandalorian”.
One obvious difference to those though was budget, with “Andor” boasting obviously far more economic resources per episode with THR reporting this week the twelve episode season came in at an estimated $250 million budget (just over $20 million per episode).
Even by prestige TV standards, that’s a considerable amount, and Gilroy tells the trade he sees the show being greenlit as a minor miracle or timing as it probably would never have been given the go-ahead either earlier or today:
“We got lucky making this during the gold rush a few years ago. A lot of people now have cold feet, and you can’t do this show inexpensively. I’m just so relieved at the reaction because we were making this huge, obscure thing, and we knew it was crazy. Like, ‘Is this too much? Have we gone too far?’ There were no focus groups or test audiences. Now it will be good if we can stick the landing and go out strong.”
The second season consists of another twelve episodes and will double down on the nature of the first season – this time extending the gap between its multi-episode arcs.
Gilroy says that whilst the first season arcs are fairly clearly delineated in terms of genres (recruitment/heist/prison break/revolt) and a bit fuzzier in terms of time, the second will be fuzzier in terms of genre but more rigid in its structure:
“It’s not as clearly delineated in terms of genres, but it’s more clearly delineated in that each block of three episodes will be separated by a yearlong gap. So they’re really stand-alone, and in many cases take place over one, two or three days.”
Assuming the ongoing writer’s strike doesn’t cause any further delays, the second season of “Andor” will hopefully arrive late next year.
