Andor may be one of the most critically acclaimed Star Wars projects of all time, but showrunner Tony Gilroy isn’t sure whether franchise creator George Lucas has actually seen it.
In a new interview with Vanity Fair, the writer-director was asked if Lucas had tuned in, to which he candidly replied: “I don’t know. Not even rumorwise. I’ve only spoken to him once, after Rogue One. I spoke to him on the phone. He was congratulating us. But no, I’ve never met him, and I’ve never talked to him about it.”
Earlier in the chat, however, Gilroy had sung Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy’s praises, suggesting there would be “no show without her” and highlighting how encouraging she was of his vision for the ambitious prequel.
“She has protected the show and protected me and wrangled a team together. When we started challenging Kathy, Kathy just kept saying yes,” he explained, noting how open she was to exploring a darker, more adult tone. “‘Oh, I’m going to put the first scene in a brothel.’ ‘Okay.’ ‘I’m going to have them kill two cops.’ ‘Okay.’ ‘We want the production designer from Chernobyl.’ ‘Okay, good idea.’ She backed our play and got everything that we were doing. We’ve been through everything, she and I, on this — all the good and all the bad. There’s no show without her. For all the shit that she takes online, it’s just insane. This show exists because she forced it to happen. What a tough job she has, man.”
Across two seasons, Andor tells the story of how Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor came to be a Rebel spy and wind up making the ultimate sacrifice in an attempt to destroy the Death Star in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. All episodes are streaming now on Disney Plus.
For more, check out our guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows.