Andor Showrunner Tony Gilroy Had A Hard Time Finding Directors For Season 2
With "Andor" season 1 in the bag, it's fair to say showrunner and creator Tony Gilroy and his fellow creatives have exceeded expectations with their "Rogue One" prequel series. What might have been little more than another log to add to the fire that is Disney+ and its never-ending supply of exclusive films and shows has emerged as perhaps the greatest "Star Wars" project released by the Mouse House to date. Heck, it's arguably in contention for the distinction of best live-action "Star Wars" title ever. Yes, really.
In its first season, "Andor" not only revealed the origins of the titular "Rogue One" character, but it also shined a light on the early days of the Rebel Alliance, painting the organization and its founding members in far richer shades of grey rather than the clear-cut heroes seen in the original "Star Wars" trilogy. But for as much as the show has thrived so far thanks to the quality of its writing, the direction has proven just as essential to making "Andor" work. Thanks to its measured, deliberate pace and the way it uses CGI and the one-off bit of StageCraft magic to complement its practical sets and real-world locations (not vice versa), the "Star Wars" universe has never felt more real than it does on the series.
The second and intended final season of "Andor" will bring in a new slate of directors to pick up the baton from where season 1 helmers Benjamin Caron, Toby Haynes, and Susanna White left it. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Gilroy confirmed he and his fellow head creatives "tried really hard" to bring Caron, Haynes, and White back for the second season, but to no avail. Finding suitable replacements wasn't easy, either, given the sky-high demand for quality TV directors at the moment.
'It's not easy to do this show.'
In a shocking twist, it turns out that when you're among the best in your field, that means everybody wants to work with you. In the case of "Andor," Tony Gilroy told THR that Benjamin Caron is currently busy helming the thriller "Sharper" and "wants to see how his feature goes," whereas Haynes "got jammed up" working on the next season of "Black Mirror" and "couldn't give us a decision in time, and we had to pull the trigger."
Gilroy continued, lamenting how the sheer plethora of streaming projects in active development makes it harder than ever for any series to nail down directors, even something as big as a "Star Wars" TV show:
"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 2.' And we're like, 'This is not season 2. 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."
Luckily, the directors Gilroy eventually landed — "Yellowjackets" alum Ariel Kleiman, "Borg vs. McEnroe" helmer Janus Metz, and "Narcos: Mexico" veteran Alonso Ruizpalacios — match the caliber of the directors on the show's first season. Production on "Andor" season 2 is now underway, so keep it tuned to /Film for more information in the coming months.