Editor’s Note: The following interview contains spoilers for Andor Season 2, Episodes 1-6.

Summary

Andor Season 2 explores new-to-screen worlds like Chandrila and Ghorman with rich cultures and depth, and Tony Gilroy discusses the worldbuilding behind each.

Genevieve O’Reilly discusses the impact of showcasing Mon Mothma’s cultural background as the story plays out.

Tony Gilroy reveals the recasting of Bail Organawas necessary due to scheduling conflicts with Jimmy Smits.

Andor Season 2 officially reached the halfway point this week with the second batch of heartbreaking episodes. With Episode 4, the series also officially introduced Ghorman to audiences, following last week’s impressive exploration of life on Chandrila and Mina-Rau. From the start, the critically acclaimed series has been steadfast in its portrayal of fully fleshed-out worlds, cultures, and people — but Season 2 takes things to a new level with its dedication to worldbuilding.
Ahead of the Season 2 premiere — and before the cast made their way around the world for Star Wars Celebration Japan — I had the chance to chat with Tony Gilroy and Genevieve O’Reilly about the series. During our short, but suprisingly deep conversations, they discussed the process of designing worlds like Chandrila, Ghorman, and Mina-Rau, the thrill of playing God when constructing the cultures of each planet, and why Benjamin Bratt was brought in to replace Jimmy Smits as Bail Organa. You can read the full transcript below or watch the interview in the player above.
COLLIDER: Tony, you were right. I sobbed my eyes out with this series. Honestly, if I talk too much about it, I might cry, so we’re going to talk about fun things. I am a sucker for world-building, and I love that we get to see so much of Chandrila and Ghorman. Because this is the first time we really get to see them and their culture and their depth, what was it like getting to build these worlds? Especially in these first three episodes, we see so much of the Chandrilian culture.
TONY GILROY: Luke Hull, who’s the production designer, is the first person I deal with. He’s really my primary collaborator creatively. We had such a thrill making Ferrix, and we went so deep on it. It was such a payday for us all the way around. We learned how to do it there, and we learned how deep we could go, and then we learned that if we go really, really deep, people really appreciate it, and they go with us. I want to say, “Oh, it’s so much hard work,” but it’s really just so much fun to play God.
I mean, I can’t even tell you. It’s challenging. You’ve got to come up with a new aesthetic. You don’t want to do anything you did before, so you’re searching for things. We’re both very, very particular about how things go. What’s it look like? What’s the architecture like? What’s the economy? Coming up with the culture, the vibe, the language. Nick Britell and I wrote the national anthem. It’s an incredible amount of work, and a lot of it exists off the screen, and there are some things you don’t see, but man, it’s just really fun.
How ‘Andor’ Season 2 Brings Chandrilian Culture to Life

I love it. I love everything that we get to see in this. Something I also really love, Genevieve, with Mon’s story in these first three episodes, is I feel like I could wax and wane philosophical about so many of the little details of the character work. What do you think it is about telling this part of her story with her daughter and her connection to her culture and her heritage, and how it arcs into what we see of her in Rogue One and then down the line as well?
GENEVIEVE O’REILLY: That work that Tony is referring to that they did, Luke and Tony and then our costume designer, Michael Wilkinson, and our hair and makeup designer, Emma Scott, they create a world. What that does is it informs character, because all of a sudden, you have a character steeped in a history, a history that we’ve heard about before, but we actually get to witness the lived experience of her within that culture. You can feel the bits that she’s comfortable with, the bits that she’s very uncomfortable with. You can feel the bits that are imposed on her. I’m remembering there’s a hike that we did in Montserrat, and there’s this little bit between Vel and Mon where you can see there is such derision in their experience. They’re like, “Oh, here we go. You go up to the top, and this is what happens.”
But you get such a window into a shared history, and what that does, then, is interweave within the relationships that are written between mother and daughter, between husband and wife. You also have people from the outside coming in, so you have a window through Luthen or even Davo Sculden. Within the same culture, you see really massive differences between maybe the Mothmas and the Sculdens. It’s so rich. It informs so much. So, I think it can’t but inform or add to or create how you watch the rest.
Have you read any of the other books that have Mon in them? Because in watching this, I spent so much time thinking about how, in particular, there’s a book where she helps with Leia’s honeymoon on the cruise liner that Han and her go on, and I think about how that adds new context to those scenes now because of seeing how she had this failed situation with her daughter, and the moments where she’s trying to bond with her.
O’REILLY: I have to plead ignorance here. I think it was really important for us to invest in this.
GILROY: It doesn’t help us to do that. We’ve cast our own spell, so we really try to tune that out.
But I love how it ends up informing things in the readers’ minds.
GILROY: I hope so.
I love so much of the world-building in these first three episodes. Mina-Rau is such an interesting agricultural planet with a lot of culture, as well, but I feel like there’s probably more going on around it that we don’t necessarily see on screen based on what you’re saying about creating these other cultures. Why an agricultural planet? What went into the decision there in the conception of that?
GILROY: We wanted them to go someplace that was vaguely utopian and bright and happy and a comfortable place that they really felt satisfied, and a community that was welcoming and interesting. Also, I’m just obsessed with economics, and I’m always like, “Where do people get money from? How do you feed all these people?” And of course, I’m like, “Where does all this food come from and how does it work?” So, the idea of this gigantic sort of Soviet commune farm system made sense to me. But I think the primary impulse was to have someplace that felt warm and comfy — someplace you’d want to stay.
I love that. I’m an anthropologist by trade, so all of these world things and the culture, I want more! It’s great to see how it’s been brought about on screen. Genevieve, what is going through Mon’s head in that moment where she realizes what Luthen is talking about in terms of handling the Tay situation? Because I love the Tay and Mon dynamic. I know a lot of people really liked it in Season 1, as well, and seeing where it ends is heartbreaking.
O’REILLY: The work that we did in Season 1, he was so valuable. He was everything to her. He was really her partner in Season 1. So then, to start Season 2, it’s an incremental staircase there in Episodes 1, 2, and 3. Within Tony’s writing, there are these little layers, and it’s very subtle. So, in that very first scene, you meet them, and she’s actually spotted Luthen, but Tay comes up, and they have this conversation, and there’s a real subtlety in the writing and also in the acting where it’s just a little bit flat. The tone is a tiny bit flat or a little bit off, and so she can clock that and move on because of the culture of the ceremony. Then in Episode 2, there’s another, and then in Episode 3, there’s another. It’s this very slow dawning on a woman that there is a threat within her own choices and in her very, very tight circle. Would you say that?
GILROY: I had to really sell this one. She’s making it sound really easy. There are a couple of things I had to really sell. This was a real sales job on my part. There were people who were like, “I don’t know if we can turn it that fast in Tay Kolma.” And I’m like, “It’s a year later, and he’s Fredo.” He’s Fredo. People go Fredo. How many people do you know in your life, and then a year later, “Whoa…” I had to really sell it. Probably to my benefit, they put a lot of pressure on it, and I probably went in and gave it some help along the way. But it was not a slam dunk when I turned that one in, no.
Interesting.
GILROY: No, no, no. She made it sound really smooth, but no, she was like, “Really?”
O’REILLY: [Laughs] That’s my job.
GILROY: No. But Tay Kolma, it’s Fredo.
Why Bail Organa Had To be Recast

Image via Disney+

I love that. I do have one spoilery question for the next set of episodes. The recast of Bail. How did that come to be? Was Jimmy [Smits] busy? I love Benjamin [Bratt], he’s a perfect pick for Bail.
GILROY: Bringing back the legacy characters is always a complicated process between money and scheduling and territory and everything else. Obviously, in a perfect world, he would come back. They just couldn’t put it together. He was doing a television series that was peaking at that point in time, and it just couldn’t work out. Finally, we have to have him because we have to. You have to have him. Ben was such a brilliant get as a replacement.
He’s a fantastic Bail. I’m just glad it wasn’t the AI de-aging thing or any of that. I was glad it was a recast, so thank you for that.
GILROY: Me too.
O’REILLY: Me too.
The first six episodes of Andor Season 2 are streaming now on Disney+

Andor

Release Date

2022 – 2025-00-00

Network

Disney+