With Andor’s first 12-part season all available, and the second filming now, its showrunner has given a fascinating interview to The Hollywood Reporter. 

The chat with the creator of the Rogue One prequel covers a lot of ground, with spoilers for Season One, naturally.

That post-credits sequence

There are numerous YouTube videos that will explain the significance of Andor’s post-credits sequence but, if you hung on until the end like us, you’re probably the sort of viewer who understood the significance instantly. This is Star Wars, so it makes utter sense that Cassian and his fellow prisoners on Narkina 5 were constructing parts for the Death Star.

As Gilroy explains: “It’ll still be the looming threat. Rogue One is all about discovering what it is. [Season two is] about who picks up the final breadcrumbs that lead to the beginning of Rogue One.”

He also addresses the events of the day of Marva’s funeral, as seen in the finale ‘Rix Road’, and how it is a turning point in Cassian and Luthen’s relationship:

“Yeah, it’s a big day for Luthen. When he’s listening to Maarva’s speech, it’s not pride of ownership on his part. It is and it isn’t, but it’s another corner of the farm he’s trying to grow. So he’s very proud when he hears that. And my God, to finish up the day and have this new asset walk in — who’s been through all this stuff and is still standing and you managed not to kill — and he is now basically saying, “Alright, I’m in. Blood oath,” that’s a pretty good day, I think.”

Andor Season 2 and its time jumps

The interview also talks about the structure of Season Two and its time jumps, with Gilroy explaining how the three-episode arcs will work:

“They are actually super condensed. They’re like three days, four days, two weeks, four days. They’re really tight. It’s cool that way. That’s what’s exciting about it. You can go away for a year, come back for Friday, Saturday and Sunday and then jump a year. So they won’t be spread out. It won’t be like block two takes place over another year. So they’re very concentrated, which is fun. And then you have to account for all the negative space and what happened in the interim.”

He also addresses why the upcoming series welcomes a fresh set of directors:

“Man, we tried really hard. Ben [Caron] didn’t want to come back because he had his movie [Sharper] with Julianne Moore. He’s a big feature director now, so he wants to see how his feature goes. We also wanted Toby [Haynes] to come back really badly, but he got jammed up on Black Mirror. So he couldn’t give us a decision in time, and we had to pull the trigger.”

For Season Two, Ariel Kleiman (Yellowjackets), Janus Metz (True Detective) and Alonso Ruizpalacios (Outer Range) are all occupying the director’s chair.

“It’s very hard getting directors. There’s a lot of people who are shopping for the same people all the time, and there’s only a certain number of people. It’s not easy to do this show. You can’t learn on this job, and we can’t take big chances with these blocks. People have to be pretty experienced, and so that’s a smaller group. There’s a billion shows and everybody is scrounging for people. And a lot of people have a psychological impediment. They say, “Oh, I don’t want to do season two.” And we’re like, “This is not season two. It’s a whole other thing.” And so it’s a lot of work getting directors. It was way more difficult than I ever thought.”

Andor‘s first season is available to stream on Disney+. We’ll keep you posted on Season Two.