Writer Tony Gilroy gave an update at Star Wars Celebration regarding new Disney Plus series Andor, which is a prequel to 2016’s Rogue One. He explained that the two seasons will span five years across two seasons with 12 episodes each – meaning it will be on a scale not seen before in the Star Wars TV shows.
The Mandalorian has 8-episode seasons, The Book of Boba Fett had 7 episodes, and Obi-Wan Kenobi only had 6. The first season of Andor, starring Diego Luna, will span one year and the second season will span the remaining four.
“The scale of the show is so huge. Directors work in blocks of three episodes, so we did four blocks [in Season 1] of three episodes each. We looked and said, ‘Wow, it’d be really interesting if we come back [for the second season], and we use each block to represent a year. We’ll move a year closer [to the events of Rogue One] with each block.’ From a narrative point of view, it’s really exciting to be able to work on something where you do a Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and then jump a year,” Gilroy told Empire.
Diego Luna said that Andor will be more character-focused than the movie was; “Rogue One is more about an event than the actual journey of [the] characters. It’s quite amazing to start a show where it’s not about where we can end – it’s about, how did we end there?”
Tony Gilroy was the writer of the Bourne Trilogy starring Matt Damon, as well as The Devil’s Advocate, Armageddon, Michael Clayton, and State of Play. He wrote the screenplay for Rogue One, so is the authority on the new show. His brother Dan, who wrote Kong: Skull Island, and directed Nightcrawler, is also working on Andor.
While we wait for more news, check out our guide to the best Star Wars characters.